Kitted out in nowt but a nappy, Wonder Boy must nevertheless brave the elements in search of his girlfriend, Tina. She has been captured by an evil king. As it happens, this king resides far away, and Wonder Boy will have to make his way through several perilous landscapes before he can attempt a rescue.

Wonder Boy is a cutie game that has been around for yonks - and it shows. The large cartoon graphics are a bit limited, backgrounds get repetitive, and the sprites don't have too many frames of animation, so the action is by no means as smooth as it could be.

At first the poor lad is unarmed. Luckily, giant eggs can be cracked open to reveal all sorts of goodies. A throwing axe is particularly welcome, as there are baddies aplenty. Most can be jumped over, but the axe makes things a darn sight easier. Other things on offer are skateboards - complete with crash helmet -and protective fairies.

It's a horizontally-scrolling jumping game where you make your way from left to right across the screen. The game consists of seven lands to conquer. Each land is split into four territories and these territories are again made up of four zones. Getting killed towards the end of a level means that you don't have to start the whole thing again - you merely go back to the last zone, thank goodness.

The game has an incredibly tedious 'tune' consisting of just two chords alternated. The sound effects, however, aren't too bad, and luckily the music can be switched off.

Wonder Boy is quite good fun to play. The character reacts well to the controls, and there is plenty of game to get through. It's entertaining enough, but ultimately is limited by its repetitive nature.

It looks incredibly dated, and that puts you off even though it's actually quite playable.

Reach the second land.

No harm done.

Graphics 56% P. Large, cute sprites. N. Badly animated.

Sonics 37% P. Reasonable FX. N. Naff tune.

Grab Factor 64% P. Fairly easy to pick up. N. Doesn't look terribly inspiring.

Staying Power 61% P. Large playing area. N. Becomes monotonous.

Overall 62% P. A reasonably enjoyable little game.

Adam Waring