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There's an awful lot of nocturnal creatures making it big in the world of home computing at the moment; Turbo the Tortoise, Titus the Fox, Sonic the Hedgehog, Oswald the Aardvark... [Oswald the Aardvark? I've never heard of Oswald the Aardvark - Ed] Turbo may be the most recent addition to the fold, but he's already starting to make an impression with his excellent platforming around. When night falls in Britain now, it's move over foxes, hedgehogs and aardvarks - the tortoise is here! [There's never been a game about Oswald the Aardvark, Adam. You just made that up, I'm sure of it. And, anyway, tortoises aren't nocturnal - Ed]

Turbo The Tortoise is on the face of it a very run-of-the-mill platformer. The graphics might be quite sweet, especially the variety of styles between the different levels, but the game itself is just a simple running and jumping thing, right? You've got a gun at your disposal but your main method of despatching the enemy is the old 'jumping on their head' standby. Nothing special, huh?

Wrong! Turbo is one of the best platform games we've seen in ages: For a start, it's very neat. There's no complex controls, no convoluted plot, no over-taxing mission and no mapping necessary. It's a straight-forward sideways scroller.

The difficulty level seems to have been pitched just right. Whilst the end-of-level guardians are perhaps a bit over-strong (That's a sad fact of most platformers), practice and concentration will see you progress every time you play.

The game also has a load of other features that help chalk up the points in its favour; a different weapon for Turbo on each level, secret (but easily found) bonus rooms, loads of power-ups... the list goes on and on. Er, well actually it doesn't. It stops with 'power-ups', that's why I put those three dots there.

Sound is limited to a few typical computer bleeps, but the graphics deserve plenty of praise. Very colourful, varied and smooth, if a smidgeon slow. It doesn't quite match up to the sheer depth of play found in Hi-Tec's other recent platformer, Potsworth & Co, but it still smacks of class and is one of Hi-Tec's few titles not relying on the popularity of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character for its sales.

Turbo is fearsomely addictive and suitably varied. The strength of the guardians (you have to jump on their - moving - heads several times before they cop it) is a bit of a problem, but once you've sussed their movement pattern and get your timing worked out, you should be a match for any of them. Excellent.

I don't like tortoises much, because they don't chase sticks and bark at strangers. I don't like dogs either. Very good game, by the way.

Wax the first guardian.

Graphics 93%
Lovely and bright. Detailed sprites with lots of colour and six distinct styles.

Sonics 62%
Average computer noises, really. A wide selection of effects, but nothing special.

Grab Factor 92%
Very easy to get started with, this is so tidily put together, you'll be into it within seconds...

Staying Power 85%
...and the strength of the guardians and different obstacles makes it a real stayer.

Overall 88%