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An earlier than expected release from Rucksack Games and John Blythe in the shape of All Hallows: Rise Of The Pumpkin. Another great platform game developed in less than five months using AGDx, an extension of AGD (Arcade Game Designer) by Jonathan Cauldwell, following in the footsteps of the homebrew hero's equally fantastic Foggy's Quest, Circuitry and The Incredible Shrinking Professor. John took his inspiration from Andy John's wonderful bounce mechanic and another AGD platform game called Pumpkin Poe developed by Ariel Endaraues. There's no bouncing in that game but you can see quite a few similarities between the two.

So the story goes, thousands of years ago Ancient Sages used five magical moonstones to trap the evil forest lord within his dark tower in an effort to protect the great forest kingdom. But now you have noticed that the dark tower has awoken and the binding pentagram of moonstones magic is fading away and can only be restored by the touch of a forest spirit, such as yourself, otherwise the evil forest lord will break free and have his revenge. I don't mind convoluted plots for games with such simplistic gameplay, but I do prefer the old 'You got drunk last night and have to tidy up your mansion or the maid won't let you sleep' plot. (Actually what's that all about? What kind of maid holds that sort of power over her millionaire employer? That woman seriously needs to check out her job description!)

Anyway, in the game your bouncing pumpkin must traverse various interconnected screens, in a not too dissimilar fashion to the pumpkin found in Cauldron II, using just two keys, left and right. This meant I could actually drink my own homebrew whilst playing the game at the same time. Awesome? Well maybe, unless like me you get game rage and end up scalding half your head with said beverage. Your task is to find the five magical moonstones and restore their magic by touching them, along with the three magical tablets which add or remove 'magical' blocks to open up new pathways through the game. Once you have accessed the moonstones and tablets you will need to find the gateway which will re-awaken the magical binding spell and keep the forest lord imprisoned in his tower once again.

There's plenty of nasties to avoid during your quest such as bats, fireballs, monstrous gnashing heads, pots of fire, creepy spiders and lava pits. Bats and pots of fire drain your energy whilst all the other nasties are fatal to the touch. Unfortunately it's not a happy feeling inside when you first discover this fact. But, to cheer you up a bit, special pots of green/blue (or is it turquoise?) fire can be bounced in to restore your juice back to one hundred percent. Extra lives, in the form of little pumpkin heads can also be found, up to a maximum of ten. Coloured levers scattered around the tower can be pulled to unlock various matching coloured doors.

As well as platforms there are ladders that can be climbed to reach higher points but unfortunately your bouncing pumpkin does not possess the ability to climb down them. A case of candlelight on but nobody home perhaps? This is one of those games where you probably need to make a map so you know where to find the moonstones, magical tablets, levers, etc. Youngsters might even be able to use their memory for the same purpose.

The level design is clever and each screen has its own recognisable characteristics. The screens also have eye-catching graphics full of tiny intricate details from the fiery flame effects to the twinkling stars in the night sky. The game's difficulty might be too challenging for some. Luckily for me, my game rage limit is tea spillage as I'm too much of a cheapskate to throw my PC out of a top floor window (unlike some rich lunatics I've had the pleasure of watching on youtube). The lack of any sort of time limit takes the pressure off slightly and the AY chiptune music is very soothing. All four tunes are catchy and the in-game music seems to last forever before repeating.

There's no scoring system, points or percentage of the game completed. I'm one of those players who likes to see an indication of how well I've done and how I've progressed on further attempts as inevitably I'll end up giving up before finishing the game. What can I say, I'm not a completionist. (Unless it's Ant Attack where basically you never stay dead and can keep trying forever. Love that game!) This game though, suffers from the old Jet Set Willy flaw of multiple falling deaths leading to instant game over. It is avoidable, as your pumpkin can drift slightly, but not by an old geezer like me whose teenage ninja reactions have been shot to pieces over the years. (In fact I would say once I reached twenty years of age!)

The ladders can be a bit annoying sometimes because as soon as they are touched you fly up to the top of them, more often than not right into a waiting nasty. I'm not sure the bouncing mechanic fits in too well with ladders or maybe I'm lacking in ladder skills. (I was never a window cleaner or librarian in one of those huge old libraries.)

Simple gameplay, intricate graphics, fantastic audio and that 'just one more go' magic ingredient, all help to position this game high up in the list of modern day spectrum classics. It's not perfect by any means. However, its flaws are quite minor so they're easily forgiven. It's quite a challenging game and it may be too difficult for some but this increases the game's longevity. If you don't like to lose, you will return to this game again and again for months until you finally trap the dark lord for another thousand years. Or, if you're like me, the dark lord will turn us all into his slaves and all hope will be lost, at least a thousand times over.