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Sacre Blu! Those peace-loving peeps, the Gaspards are having a real bad time since their protecting overlords the Carikens were slaughtered by the evil Maldur. The Gaspards were hard a-gasp until they heard that one member of Cariken family was still alive. If he can reunite the 23 pieces of an amulet scattered throughout the land, then once more a Cariken can return the land to peace.

All sounds a bit convoluted - well that's because of the strange Frenchie idea of fun. The game? It's pretty good act-u-al-a-ment. (Hem!) The graphics although good cannot live up to the PR bumf that describes the game as having 'colourful graphics' as whilst the monochrome graphics are smooth and well detailed, they do still have only two colours with the explosion of colour happening off the actual game area.

The play takes you through 23 (count 'em) different levels, each of which holds diabolic creatures that the utterly, utterly wicked Maldur has left to bar your progress. However, you're not without a few of your own tricks up your sleeve. There are objects which you can collect as you go to build up your magical arsenal of three weapons, bonus bits like the springs of boinginess, the parachute of doom, extra lives and shields all of which are needed if you want to get past the boss monster on every forth level. There's even a shop - or rather a shopkeeper type who you can summon to you to replenish your supplies - a sort of 'Ring-A-Retailer'.

There's a lot of game here and it all works rather well. You journey above and below ground in a leap, spriong manner hurling one of the three types of spells at the nasties using the space bar to choose between varying degrees of spell strength and then hurling each one in a manner not unaccustomed to an airborne brick.

Twinworld is very much a French version of Wonderboy and is easily as challenging. Graphics are well detailed without being fussy and character animation is smooth and controllable. So, if you like the new wave 'arcade adventure' games, then Twinworld should have you smashing your porcelain piggies' head in and hoofing it down to the local games emporium in no time!

Label: Ubisoft Price: £9.99 Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

Take no substitute. Twin World is a captivating romp, that'll leave you spellbound.