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Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, have a Yabba Dabba Doo time... Or Yabba Dabba Two time, seeing as this is the second Flintstones game, although no mention of the first one - no wonder really. it was pretty dire as remember.

This Flintstones is set in ye olde worlde prehistoric times, and stars Fred Flintstones with Wilma and Pebbles, and Barney and Betty Rubble making the oocasional appearance. (If Barney was a designer would he be Designer Rubble?) Its the weekend, and Fred's looking forward to the final of the Bedrock Super Bowl contest the following day, but Wilma has other plans for Fred. He must paint the living room before Mother visits, otherwise he gets a good nagging, and no bowling. Simple, eh? Well yes, except Pebbles is partial to a bit of drawing, and insists on helping Daddy by drawing faces and figures over the wall that Fred has just painted, so not only must you try to paint the wall, but also keep the troublesome sprog locked up in her pen. Not easy, especially when every time you grab Pebbles, your paintbrush, a sort of prehistoric skunk, legs it off and tries to escape. Should you by a miracle manage to finish the wall before your time runs out, then it's straight down to the bowling alley.

Aaah, freedom. The summer breeze in your hair the stereo belting out rock music, and lumps of stone all over the road. Eh? Yup, a Flintstones life is not an easy one, 'cos to reach the bowling alley, Fred must jump the car over the rocks strewn all over the road. If Fred hits one, then the back wheel bounces through the air, and he has to leap out, jack the car up and fix the wheel back on. Tricky, I can tell you.

At the bowling alley it's a head to head match between Fred and Barney in the Bedrock Super Bowl contest. Can Fred get the position, spin and speed right in order to get a strike? Or will Barney continue to beat Fred hands down as he did when I was playing?

Just as the match is over, the newspaper arrives with the news that Pebbles has gone missing, and so it's on to the fourth and final part of the game. Fred must rescue her from the top of the block of flats on the building site where she was test sighted. Fred does this by climbing to the top via the ropes, lifts and rock platforms conveniently situated on the outside of the building. If tie falls too many times, the message is flashed up that Barney Rubble has rescued Pebbles instead. Flippin 'eck! If my neighbour was so miraculous that he beat me at bowling and rescued my children, I'd move house.

Mark Edwards must be congratulated for the brilliant graphics on this game. All the characters are excellent copies of their cartoon counterparts, and the opening sequence of Fred finishing work and sliding down the back of his dinosaur is mega. The actual animation of the characters is also of a superb quality especially Fred's run-up in the bowling section of the game.

This said, however I think that the programmers have attempted to fit too many features into one game. Each section looks great, and the painting section has a certain addictiveness, but overall the game doesn't encourage you to carry on for very long. The bowling section seemed to be a little random, and often the shot appeared to depend on luck rather than speed or spin. And the rescue section gave the impression of yet another JSW clone with big sprites, even to the 'blackout' following a fall.

Whilst this is an improvement on the first Flintstones game, it is let down by poor addictive qualities. Teque are, though, definitely a team to watch out for in the future.

Good conversion of the TV characters, let down by trying to put too many other bits in too.