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Can you honestly tell me that as a child, you really enjoyed Tiswas? It had all the right ingredients - wackiness, an evil villain, humour, Chris Tarrant, etc - but it I always found it incredibly scary. Sort of "clown that grins too much" scary. All of this is, of course, only vaguely linked to The Addams Family, but I just wanted to mention it.

You see, The Addams Family weren't scary as such, but they did possess a certain something that prompted slightly uncomfortable laughter from people who were never quite sure how hard to laugh.

So is it possible to capture this deep spirit of creepiness on a computer? Has this re-release of Ocean's original game got what it takes?

The plot is simple - the whole family has been imprisoned, and it's up to one man to rescue them - Gomez. So you, controlling Morticia's slightly creepy husband, must journey round the castle and do the standard heroic bit.

It's a platform game. Welcome to Yawn City, Alabama, population one game reviewer. There's a fairly good selection of nasties. Oh, and there are some doors to go through. Whoopdedoo. So, what with all this tired concept stuff, why is it so likeable?

The format is strange - bad guys are killed by jumping on their heads. This, though being old hat in arcades and console games, is a relatively new development for the CPC. Probably the closest thing recently has been Prehistorik II, which had a distinctly "consoley" feel to it. Good news? Well, it adds diversity to an already broad games selection for a dying (as far as the computer games industry is concerned) machine, so it can't be bad.

For a game to work as well as this one does, the graphics have to be quite good. The Addams Family is extremely nice to look at, with a broadish array of different backgrounds, as well as a good variety of bad guys. The animation is smooth, with no sprite flicker, and no speed reduction.

One thing you may notice is the slightly naff title tune plonking away in the background on title sequence but, thankfully, this honky-tonk harmony in everything flat dies as soon as the game gets going. Sound effects are a damned sight better than the opening tune, and do actually manage to add something.

When you first play the game, you'll have a mixed reaction. On the one hand, the game holds nothing you won't have seen before but, on the other, it does make a very nice platform romp game. Ocean seem to have managed to combine the good points of many, many games, and leave behind all the niggling little things about previous platform yawn-'em-ups.

Once you've managed to get past the first screen, the whole game opens itself up to you. That's not to say you'll be able to complete it all that easily; it's just that the techniques used on the first screen are carried through the whole game. This way, you'll manage to see quite a lot more of the game each time you play it, and you won't come up against too much trouble with screens you've already completed.

This has got to be one of the better re-releases of late, if not the best. What the game loses in lack of originality, it certainly makes up for in size, fun, and challenge.

Graphics 93%
Candles create bright patches on walls, and portraits hang in the house - it's worth watching.

Sonics 72%
The title tune has about as much appeal as Jimmy Tarbuck, and in-game effects don't add much.

Grab Factor 85%
An initial easiness will probably draw you into the game quite quickly... And long enough to discover other, more difficult sections.

Staying Power 87%
You'll play for quite a while.

Overall 90%
A game that you realty should take a good look at - you don't know what you're missing.