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Doctor Maybe might be a bit of a megalomaniac, but he's not at all happy. First time round he had his butt well and truly kicked by the special agent to end 'em all: James Pond: Underwater Agent. He's been hiding away ever since, planning his revenge and dreaming of all the dreadful things he's going to do to our fab fish.

After months of deep consideration, the perfect plan pops into Maybe's mind - and it's all about toys. But how can harmless little playthings do any damage to mankind? Here's how: by altering their workings so that they become psychopathic killers, Maybe reckons he'll create the perfect army of killers - and he's not far wrong.

One trip down to the Arctic and the plans are put in motion, the toys are tampered with and Maybe's maniac army is all set to take over the world! Trouble is, Maybe never reckoned on the solid advances of fishy technology. F.I.5.H. agents have devised the ultimate agent - Robocod. Half aquatic animal, half machine, Robocod's directives are to shut down every toy in sight before shutting down Doc Maybe for good. Is our man Cod up to the task?

Robocode may look more more than a tad familiar, 'cos you've no doubt seen him before! He's none other than that original underwater superhero James Pond - remodelled this time round for more thrills 'n spills.

Robocode is the sequel to James Pond, the computer and console game which swept the world not so long ago. This time round the maniac brains behind the game have taken all the best bits and improved upon them, delivering a completely different style of play you'll have to see to believe!

Our man Pond has a boxful of skills to draw on, including the ability to stretch his body in order to grab hold of the ceiling! Cod can rise miles by stretching his body straight up, then grab an object and shimmy along to avoid those annoying floor-based hazards!

This can be a real relief when things are getting hairy, but sometimes turn into a right pain in the jacksie if you don't know where the hell you are!

Stuffed full of tons of gorgeous scrolling screens, Robocod features all manner of amazing meanies to discover and destroy! Some of them are so weird and wonderful you'll see why Dr Maybe has more than a few screws loose, and a few are loosely based on characters you'll have seen before. We're saying nowt!

Not only does Robocod feature more than 2,500 screens of action, but the game includes loads of bonus rooms and a specially created bonus level! Here you can pick up some major points and power-ups to aid young Robo in his quest for the Doc. Hurrah!

Most of you will already know all about Robocod on 16-bit machines. We reviewed the game a few issues back and it scored a comfortable hit. The Megadrive version is precisely the same game, using the strengths of the console to full effect to improve upon the original wherever possible and turn this into a finely tuned console romp.

I played the original quite a lot and wasn't expecting to give this conversion much time, but it's just so slick it draws you back again and again! Graphics and sound are faithful to the Amiga version and for my money this plays just a tad better because the joypad is a lot less bother than the joystick.

Here's a game which suits consoles perfectly, and if loads of laughs and jolly japes are right up your street then this game is where you want to be.

James Pond is back, only this time he's half robot, half fish! This is one brilliant platform game and a stonking conversion of the Amiga original. The graphics have been reproduced almost perfectly but just a little faster and smoother.

Soundwise, Robocod is a laugh riot - with a brilliant remix of the Robocop theme music and some smart sound effects. The in-game tunes are a bit twee, but suit the game perfectly. Gameplay though, is the main concern and Robocod has oodles of it. The platform theme is great and the game is fast, enjoyable and downright groovy. The game is huge, with tons of levels and secret screens - the only real difference between this and the Amiga game, is that the coloured backgrounds have been replaced with less colourful, but more detailed parallax backdrops.

If you liked the look of the Amiga version, then put on your special shopping Y-Fronts and get down to Mr Spanky's Cavalcade of Software and reserve one right now!