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Wonderboy has reached puberty! But the adolescent Tom-Tom has more pressing matters to deal with than chasing girls and squeezing spots. A ferocious dragon must be slain before peace can return to Wonderland.

But to reach the fire-breathing reptile Tom-Tom must first get through a multitude of multi-loaded, horizontally scrolling levels. Among the hostile creatures encountered along the way are venomous snakes, flying bats, and hostile skeletons: all these can be avoided or despatched with a quick thrust of Tom-Tom's sword. An large end-of-level baddie must be defeated to reveal a key to open a door to the next level. If Tom-Tom comes into contact with a nasty, his energy is reduced, removing his only life when it reaches zero. However, if Tom-Tom has some revival medicine, he gets another life, and on later levels he gets a limited number of continue-plays.

To make life even easier there are a number of useful shops on the way: just knock on the door to go in. Items such as bombs, whirlwinds, and leather boots (extra jumping power) may be purchased with gold collected from dead flashes. General advice and a cure for Tom-Tom's wounds can also be bought.

Compulsive coffee drinkers will be glad to know that the Amiga version features an interminably slow multi-load allowing you to put the kettle on between levels. In fact, if you didn't have any coffee in the house, you could go down to the supermarket and buy some in the time it takes to load each (often very short) level - on further consideration, you could probably grow your own coffee plants! Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if there was something worth waiting for, but the graphics are small and undetailed with the cute monsters looking about as dangerous as a dead tortoise.

The C64 game is marginally more impressive graphically and definitely more playable than its dull 16-bit counterpart. However the platform action of both versions is more than a bit jaded and, with revival medicine and continue-plays, hardly challenging. In fact you'll need all that coffee to keep you awake!

Graphically simple coin-ops often make the very best conversions, so I had high hopes for Super Wonder Boy. Initially, I was quite impressed: there's a fair bit of combat (although most of the baddies are too cute to kill), a nice selection of goodies to buy (from shields to leather booties) and some vicious super-baddies - usually guarding the end-of-level key.

Unfortunately, the further I progressed, the dafter the multi-load got. The length of time needed for the Amiga to load levels in is silly, and while the C64 is much speedier, some of the levels are so short and easy as to be a complete waste of time. The later levels also lack anything really new to keep you coming back for more.

Super Wonder Boy isn't a bad game, and the C64 game is a great conversion for disk owners with some quite nice gameplay, but neither is it anything special.

Presentation 54%
Inefficient multi-load for even the shortest levels, but at least it's faster than the Amiga's.

Graphics 67%
Simplistic backgrounds but cute cartoon characters.

Sound 70%
Some jolly tunes plus adequate FX.

Hookability 70%
Somewhat jaded platform action, but still instantly playable.

Lastability 62%
Simple gameplay gets repetitive after a while.

Overall 68% A decent conversion of an ageing coin-op.

Presentation 15%
Continue-plays. Very brief instructions and a multi-load designed for insomniacs.

Graphics 40%
Cute characters but not much variety.

Sound 29%
'Beepy' in-game tunes plus sparse effects.

Hookability 42%
Simple but fairly playable at first.

Lastability 32%
Spending more time loading than playing is not a good recipe for lasting appeal.

Overall 36%
A poor conversion made worse by an appalling multi-load.