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After a hard day's mining at the Bedrock quarry, all Fred Flintstone wants is a beer, a nice dinner and a bit of peace and quiet of an evening. However, there's been precious little of the latter recently. One family crisis has followed another, starting with Wilma losing her jewellery, and their kid, Peddles making off into the desert. And who has to sort it out? Yeah, Pop, every time.

There's usually some prehistoric renegade behind the thefts and disappearances, lurking in the outlands around the granite settlement. So Fred, minus his trusty sidekick Barney, sets off to retrieve the missing items, at the bottom of pools, in the midst of deserts, and even some nestling at the heart of active volcanoes. A host of Triassic tribulations.

These Flintstones are the same "Modern Stone-Age families" of the ancient Hanna Barbera cartoon series, making their Sega debut in this game.

Take Fred on a wild pterodactyl chase which conforms to the conventions of the average platform game.

Naturally, Freddie-poos has a helping hand with his mighty tasks in the form of decidedly handy power-ups scattered around the levels, all craftily hidden in tasteful pink balloons. Here's a quick rundown of what's what:

Wilma: Invincibility Power-Up Box: Extra box Gold Stars: Extra points Heart: Increases energy bar Apple: Replenishes one unit of energy bar Egg: Uncovers a kindly bird which carries Fred and shoots foes Fred Squares: 1-Up Fred Stars: Accumulate for continues

Fred risks a £10 penalty fare by boarding the Bedrock express without purchasing a ticket. His objective is to stop the train by reaching the large lizard engine at the head.

Several carriages of crawling things, reticulated monsters, and low-slung signal joists stand in his way. At the end, Fred must use two see-saws to catapult rocks at a giant flying dino. Yoiks!

It's roast Fred ahoy as our prehistoric hero stumbles upon the volcanic planes. In the first part of the level, Fred dashes across the lava pits, ducking to avoid lightning strikes. It's useful to remember that lightning always strikes the highest standing point, so don't rest under tall trees. Once in the caves, falling fire and salamanders put the heat on Frederick.

A change of scene and pace for the third level, as Fred gets into his caveman-powered car for a spin across the sands. Two things mean bad news: sheep's heads and cacti. Hitting a cactus slows you down, and clipping a skull knocks a piece from your vehicle. Alternatively, just fall down one of the many pits for instant death. No bosses at the end, just a relieved Pebbles.

Apart from jumping and clubbing, Fred grasps and hangs onto ledges when you press up and hold down the jump button. In the water, a rhythmic approach to swimming, using both jump buttons, is best. For a flying time, crack open the spotted egg to uncover a user-friendly birdie who carries Fred up high and wastes his foes with deadly missiles.

Betty's jewellery has been stolen by the demented wielder of a stone age hand-mixer. The level covers the olde worlde town, where citizens use lifts suspended from airborne lizards. All sorts of crawling things with attitude on the ground make the rooftops an appealing causeway.

The boss tries to mix you into Fred pulp with his downward swoops.

The Bedrock pool couldn't have been drained in years, judging from the pond life that has set up home there. Piranhas and electric eels are recurrent (geddit?) foes, but the spikes on walls, floors and ceilings are as deadly.

Squids carrying propellers and shoals of devilish fish drive you into them. The boss is a site to behold: an underwater brontosaur who brings down piles of clams on your head.

The Flintstones is much in the same vein as Sega's other cartoon platform games like Quackshot and Tazmania - pretty to look at, with some pleasant, if untaxing, gameplay.

The Flintstones is maybe not so pretty as its counterparts but makes up for it by being more imaginative. Each of the levels has a collection of customised monsters that break up the monotony of jumping and clubbing continuously. Having sections like the pool and desert run also offer some variety of play.

There's not much more to say. The Flintstones is a fun platform game offering a challenge in the medium term, and well worth buying.

Having expected another tired and teasy platform jaunt, relying heavily on a strong licence to make a quick buck, The Flintstones came as a pleasant surprise.

It's by no means a mega game, but it's great fun with lots of variety like the level three driving sequence which gives you a rest from relentless bashing and leaping. The sound's good, the graphics nicely designed and the sprites clearly defined.

The intro sequences are great with loads of mighty "Yabadabadoos" and the whole thing is so playable that you can't help liking it. Chances are it'll appeal more to younger players but even fogies like us can have a hoot at this game's expense for a while. Sadly, it's not going to keep you going for too long though.

Presentation 80%
P. Three skill levels, and the game cleverly prevents you ploughing all the way through on Easy.
N. No two-player option, on a game that would have suited alternate play.

Graphics 86%
P. Crisp and well drawn sprites and backgrounds. Some really good dinosaurs and bosses.
N. Some of the backgrounds are slightly simplistic, and the game lacks any lavish graphical touches.

Sound 80%
P. Reasonable Flintstones' tunes and related musical opuses.
N. FX are pretty limited throughout.

Playability 84%
P. Plays very nicely, due to a combination of changing game-styles, and good control.
N. The game's new ideas are offset by the ease with which they're overcome.

Lastability 78%
P. The game starts to kick in Hard mode, which is the only mode that allows you to finish.
N. This isn't a hard game by any means, and you won't play it much after completion.

Overall 80%
A good-looking, smooth-playing attractive platform game. No ground-breaking stuff, however and it won't keep you interested for too long.