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Jack the lad in the beanstalk tale is plundering the giant's castle again. Somewhere in the 23 locations of this game there are three hidden treasures. Jack must find the golden egg, the harp and the bag of gold as quickly as possible. To do this he must first climb the overgrown vegetable to the castle.

On the way up the beanstalk our Jack must leap from limb to limb avoiding beetles and ducks until he reaches the clouds. At this point he finds he can actually walk on the clouds up to the castle but the task becomes harder the higher he climbs with little jellybabies blocking the skyways.

Inside the castle the game takes on the appearance of a simplified Jet Set Willy with rogue vacuum cleaners and other little problems to be overcome in a myriad of rooms. Although each screen does not have as many obstacles as Willy, this does not mean that it is any easier to complete. Every new location has a logical series of movements but it takes time to think of them and often means losing all four lives many times before achieving your goal.

Each time all the lives are used up you start a fresh game from the bottom of the beanstalk with the giant's synthesised voice booming out his familiar Fie Fie Fum chant.

The graphics for the game are what I would describe as very pleasant and solid looking, ideal for a fairytale game. Not the best game of this type that I've seen but by no stretch of the imagination is it the worst.

E.D.