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Aid Rolo in his escape from the circus, freeing his helpful friends as he travels by grabbing the key off the evil ringmaster, McSmiley.

Poor little Rolo, one of the last miniature elephants in existence and captive of the twisted McSmiley and his travelling circus. In between being fired from cannons and posing as an elephantine basketball for the circus' hopeless clowns, the dizzy and despairing Rolo realised it was high time for escape. So, slipping through the bars of his cage one night with the keys stolen form McSmiley's belt, Rolo sets out to rescue his similarly-captured pals so they can aid him in his quest.

Now Rolo is putting his trust in you and your ingenuity to guide him through four treacherous lands in search of his pals, a home and the hope of being reunited with his Mother. There are many puzzles to solve and secrets to uncover. What's more, with over a hundred different locations to trump through, this is likely, to take some time. Are you beast enough?

So who exactly is Rolo to the rescue of? The answer, of course, is his friends. You see, the slight and snouted Rolo is a bit hopeless when left to his own devices and needs a bit of assistance now and again.

There are a certain amount of friends that Rolo is required to rescue from each screen and they too have special abilities that make the going easier. Only three friends are able to follow Rolo at any time, so be careful who you chose and which order you choose them in - it's a strict first in, first out basis. Rolo's main chums are:

1. Squirrels Scaling walls is what squirrels do best. You name it, they'll scale it: Caves, mines anything. Rolo and the rest reckon scaling is something to do with fish. Idiots.

2. Moles: The moles, shovel in hand, are the choice for digging through patches of soft earth. Asking the others to "dig this" and they hang around waiting for some music to begin. Those screwy animals!

3. Beavers: These are excellent swimmers, therefore the only pals to use when crossing wide stretches of water. The other animals' idea of the crawl is something you do on all fours and the mere mention of doing the breast stroke has them blushing like crazy!

4. Rabbits: Rabbits like a jump. It's their favourite activity. More importantly, rabbits jump higher than the others. They don't want anything to do with the rabbits' jumping activities!

Most of the time Rolo is just your Joe average, miniature elephant of little consequence. However, offer him a drink of lemonade and he becomes quite the expert at long distance squirting. Also, if Rolo chances across a vacuum cleaner, he develops the remarkable ability to suck items up his trunk then use them as missiles against his enemies. Rolo's piece de resistance, however, is his incredible, self-inflatory, floating ability whenever a container of helium gas is collected.

The different areas of Rolo's world are represented by pieces of jigsaw, some of which are in hard to reach or even secret locations.

There are two ways of obtaining a piece of the puzzle. The first is to free all the animals caged in the present level then passing through the transporter at the end of the level, the second is by collecting a piece of jigsaw that are occasionally hidden in some levels. These are often hard to reach.

By pressing the Start button on the jigsaw-type map screen, the player takes control of the Map Bird and is able to fly over and about the map. This gives the player some idea of how much of Rolo's quest is completed. Incidentally, Rolo can revisit any area that has already been completed which is always handy for grabbing some extra points - or lives!

Though I doubt he's destined for super stardom Rolo is a charming character and his friends are all equally as endearing with their many amusing traits. His dependence on each of his pals to complete the quest makes the game more imaginative than usual.

Unfortunuately the fun factor's choked by the absence of a save game facility or password system. Considering the size of this game it's completely demoralising to play for at least two hours, aiming to discover all that there is to find, then having to turn off and start all over again at a later date! (Apparently EA felt their target audience wouldn't stump up the extra fiver for the necessary battery back-up!)

At times the control of Rolo feels too slippery and results in much frustration. With a save-game option and slightly revised controls, Rolo could be a major hit. However, such problems exist and I suggest you seriously consider the probable frustration ahead before forking out for this one.

Pass the bucket, I'm going to chuck. It's not that this game is bad, the sprites are big, bold and brilliantly animated - it's pretty obvious it was programmed by the same coders as James Pond and Robocod because many of the characters are identical in expression.

There are some attractive, if basic, backgrounds, heaps of levels to negotiate and a mass of secret rooms to ferret out. It's just all so flaming sweet - dozens of little bundles of fluff jumping around being nauseatingly cute!

There's so much more to each level than just whopping baddies and rescuing your mates - working out which character does what is fun but infuriating if you get it wrong. One good point is if you do mess up in a big way you can abort the level and start again.

The only things that spoils the otherwise brilliant gameplay is the way Rolo slides around at will - often to his doom. Also, since it's so huge, a game-saving method really should have been incorporated. Despite these obvious flaws, it's utterly addictive and definitely worth a go - if your stomach can take it.

Presentation 85%
P. The pleasant intro screen and the presence of the jigsaw map screen between levels make the game look attractive.

Graphics 89%
P. Cute characters that wander about against a succession of similarly well-presented backdrops. N. It's all a bit basic looking and often quite empty.

Sound 79%
P. Catchy tunes that suit Rolo's character down to the ground. There are also some amusing sound effects. N. though there aren't any surprises and it is mainly standard stuff.

Playability 75%
P. The game is instantly enjoyable and the problems are often very rewarding once solved. Often the gameplay is pleasantly straightforward yet there is enough challenge to make it compelling.

Lastability 76%
P. Large enough and, at times, tricky enough to make compulsive play the case. N. If and when the game is completed it is likely to prove such a strain that many will never return to the game again!

Overall 80%
A very classy game with plenty of interesting touches. A winner with kids of any age but the absence of a save game/password facility cannot be stressed enough.