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Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is one of the most innovative films in decades. It mixes live action and animation in an unprecedented fashion. Actors talk and interact with cartoon characters - or toons as they're called - in a thoroughly convincing and realistic fashion. The effect is stunning, and it's no wonder that the film is breaking box-office records. And since it's doing so well, it's not surprising that a computer game tie-in should appear.

The film is set in Los Angeles in 1947, a plce and time where toons and human beings co-exist in a real-world environment. Eddie Valiant is a private detective who's down on his luck and is fast becoming a chronic alcoholic. He's hired by RK Maroon - the owner of Maroon Cartoons, where all the toons work - to take pictures of Jessica Rabbit in a compromising position with Marvin Acme, the incredibly successful inventor who's responsible for all Acme products - you must have seen them in cartoons (the Acme portable hole, the Acme giant magnet, or even the Acme rocket-powered roller skates). This Valiant does not realise the effect it'll have on Roger Rabbit, Jessica's leporine husband. He is distraught when he finds out that his wife is an adultress, and swears that he'll make Jessica love him again - whatever the cost - before he rushes out into the night. Later on, it's discovered that Acme has been murdered, and the blame instantly falls on Roger Rabbit. But he didn't do it, did he? And Eddie Valient decides to find out who framed Roger Rabbit.

The people behind the computer version of Roger Rabbit are Buena Vista, a subsidiary of Disney who were associated with some of the main animated features like Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Fantasia. Their game-of-the-film is presented and plays very much like a Cinemaware product, and incorporates dazzling introductory and intermission screens, and plenty of disk swapping.

There are three levels in all, each representing a scene from the film.

What the game first loads, you're treated to a film-style introductory sequence with credits and a marvellous piece of music. After that Baby Herman, one of the top toon stars, appears to give instructions. According to him, Marvin Acme's will has been lost, and it must be found within an hour, otherwise Toontown (where all the toons live) will become the property of the evil Judge Doom - who has plans to destroy it. So the will must be found - and Roger Rabbit is the only one capable of doing so.

The first level is a race from Eddie Valiant's office to the Pen and Ink club, where Acme lost the will. Roger drives down the horizontally scrolling road in Benny the Cab, a toon taxi, avoiding oncoming cars and red trams by switching from one lane to the other. There are also pools of Dip - an acetate derivative that's deadly to toons - which have to be avoided at all costs, since skidding into one results in the loss of one of Roger's five lives. Just to add a little pressure, the wicked Weasels, Judge Doom's cronies, give chase throughout the level - and a life is lost if they get to the club before Roger.

The next level is set inside the club, and Roger has to run around all the tables picking up paper napkins - one of them is the will, but Acme has written it in invisible ink. Making the task even harder are the waiter penguins, which rush around regularly replacing the napkins; Roger also has to make sure he doesn't pick up drinks accidentally - that sends him into a mega-fit and he rushes around and leaps into the air in a brilliantly animated sequence that's just like the film! It also costs him a life. And if you think that's tough enough, a gorilla patrols the club and throttles Roger if he crosses his path, losing yet another life in the process.

Grab all the napkins and it's off to Acme's gag factory for the final showdown with evil Judge Doom. It's up to you to make sure that Roger is cleared and let true love prevail by uniting Roger with Jessica - fail and Judge Doom has the last laugh.

Roger Rabbit is fun to play, but unfortunately relies far too much on its stunning graphics and digitised sound effects and tunes - the actual gameplay is very simplistic. The three levels are tough, especially the latter two, but I'd have liked more - the film was tailor-made for a computer game.

What's there is good, and is bound to appeal to fans of the film, but in the end I was left with the distinct impression that Buena haven't fully capitalised on this golden opportunity. With the addition of a few more levels of the same quality, Roger Rabbit could have been transformed from a good game to a brilliant one.