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Rodland isn't about anyone called Rod at all (shame!). The rod in question is the fabled 'Rod of Sheesanomo', given to fairies Tam and Rit to help them save their kidnapped mother. She's been imprisoned at the top of a tower for no reason, other than that she has green hair! Tam and Rit have crazy-coloured hair too (pink and blue respectively - yummy).

The multi-coloured brother and sister partnership have to work their way to the top of the tower, defeating large numbers of deceptively cuddly-looking nasties on the way up. You have to get past monkeys, lobsters with claws, Japanese starfish who throw boomerangs and, best of all, the Viz-like pathetic sharks who start to cry when you hit them with the rod.

That's what the rod's for, you see - bashing these crap nasties around with. Press the fire button when you're next to one to trap it, then keep hitting fire to toss it backwards and forwards over your head, slamming it on the floor until it rather pleasingly goes splat!

The rod isn't Tam and Rit's only exciting piece of equipment - each of them also has a pair of cunningly-fashioned rainbow boots which allow the wearer to create a ladder between platforms. Killing off certain nasties leaves bombs and missiles that explode, killing even more of them, while all the time you collect bonus points for picking up pretty little flowers. Aaaaah, how sweet!

The one thing that you can't deny about Rodland is that it's cute - cute with a capital C (and a capital U, T and E).

Although Rodland is basically "just another platform game", the super-sweetness of even the most devilish of the baddies gives the game that little soupcon of something special. In this respect, The Sales Curve have actually improved on the Jaleco coin-op Rodland is converted from - the characters all have their little quirks, with chickens that find worms and slugs that stick their tongues out at you!

There's most levels than the coin-op, with forty screens to go through, each with a colourful backdrop and ever more cuddly but potentially deadly creatures out to get you. And every so often, you will come across a huge beastie - the enormous elephant that swings on a trapeze while spitting smaller elephants at you springs to mind - which tends to slow your progress a bit, but with that magic 'Rod of Sheesanomo' in your greasy palms, you can make short work of most things that come your way. With the help of 'a chum', you can gang up on the nasties when playing in simultaneous two player mode, to despatch them even more rapidly!

While Rodland is "just another platform game", it's not a bad one - especially when played in two player mode. It's rather fun to play and yes... it's super-cutesy-wootsy!