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As you can no doubt guess, Joe Blade 2 is the sequel to Joe Blade - a game which I thoroughly enjoyed when it was released a short while back. This new version is very similar to the original and features that teenage pin-up and pop idol, media celebrity, hero of the people, defender of the flag and helper of those less fortunate than himself - or so the cassette inlay claims - Joe Blade.

In this latest romp you are again in control of this do-gooder and your task is to clean up the streets of London circa 1995. No, you're not a garbage collector, though you'll find several dustbins which can be collected on your travels. You are in fact a one man police force out to reduce the rapidly increasing crime rate.

The city has gone to the dogs since 1989 and the place is crawling with muggers, skinheads, punks and the like. Anyone who ventures out into the backstreets and alleyways is quite likely to be pounced on and given a severe beating, not to mention being robbed to boot.

Your task is to patrol the city keeping a sharp lookout for shady characters and signs of trouble. Any punks you come across on your beat must be disposed of by leaping Kung-Foo style and booting them in the head. They then disappear in a cloud of dust, but there always seem to be more just around the corner.

The object is to kill 60 or so punks and rescue 16 citizens. You'll come across the latter every now and then as you walk around.

Like the original game, the graphics are superbly detailed and the playing window - which occupies the major part of the screen - shows a 3D perspective side on view. You can walk left or right and through alleyways into and out of the screen. As you move on to the next screen it rapidly flicks up - no scrolling here.

Apart from punks, you'll come across clocks which give you extra time to clean up the city - you've got just ten minutes - and dustbins, for which I've yet to find a use. On encountering a citizen the screen clears and up pops one of four types of puzzle. All involve re-ordering a mixed up list of the numbers one to four.

Sounds easy, but you can only swap certain pairs of numbers, and this pair is rapidly changing. To make things even harder the numbers are displayed as strange hieroglyphics, and there's a time limit too. If you don't succeed you're dead meat and you have to start all over again. I found this part extremely difficult, which spoilt the game slightly for me.

Joe Blade 2 is a bit too like the original in many respects. If you have the original I would suggest you try this version before you buy it. If however, you haven't seen Joe Blade in action then it's an entertaining - if at time frustrating - game that will keep you amused for many an hour. Well worth a look.

Joe Blade 2 is very similar to the original and it is clearly hoped that players of the first version will be clamouring to buy the second. There's no doubt about it, Joe Blade 2 is a superb game - but I wish it differed more from the original.

The graphics are excellent, and the game is very playable. However, I too found the puzzle screens very difficult. If you haven't see Joe Blade before, either version will provide many hours of fun.

Roland Waddilove