Baby stars come and baby stars go. Over the year we've had the likes of Jack The Nipper, the Brat and the Bitmap Kid on home micros, but now it's the turn of Baby Jo.

Jo is a bit different from the other tykes, in that he's a nice guy rather than a mischievous little brute. He's lost his mummy and is stranded far out in the countryside (sounds a bit suspicious - how'd he get there in the first place?). Over four horizontally and vertically scrolling levels, Jo has to get back to the big city and his Mummy - who's sure to be over the moon at his return.

The indigenous wildlife has other ideas, of course. The friendly countryside creatures of Level One turn out to be not so friendly and even the daffs spit nasty stuff at you. Scattered around are milk bottles that top up your energy, extra lives, and some bonus items. Clean nappies must be collected, because, as Jo eats the bonus sweets he can find, his nappy gets - erm, not quite whiter than white. So, he can't jump as high because he's weighed down by the - well, you know. A Super Nappy enables Jo to jump higher than normal, a Protection Cape has the obvious effect, and if Jo picks up a rattle he has a weapon to protect him against the smaller monsters.

The sprites in Baby Jo move quite slowly, but they need to because the game's not easy. The graphics have a distinct comic strip air about them - everything is heavily outlined, detailed and colourful. In fact, the more you play the game, the more you appreciate the graphics. There are a couple of nice samples like Jo's crying when he "dies" or when he gets a burnt bum, but mostly the audio effects are just a sound chip tune.

Baby Jo is an enjoyable, if somewhat unforgiving, platform game with idiosyncratic graphics and an engaging air about it. It's unforgiving because you don't get many lives and they're easily lost. But then, with only four levels (accessed with a password system) it needs to be on the tough side. It doesn't have the manic air of something like Magic Pockets or Rolling Ronny. Moves must be planned carefully, and the programmers have made sure there's always an energy bonus available to you if you need it, though it may be very difficult to reach.

It's nice to see a non-arcade conversion cutesy game with some thought behind it. We could be seeing more of Baby Jo in the future.

1. Magic Pockets springs to mind on first sight, but the two games aren't really similar. Baby Jo is much harder, and more linear.
2. Graphics are more detailed but slower than those in Brat.
3. Builderland might seem similar but the two games are from different genres.
4. Cute "cartoon" graphics are like those in Nine Lives, only bigger and more detailed.