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In Cartoon World, everything is lovely. Goodness, peace and tranquility rule, and no-one ever says bad things or has bad thoughts. There's lots of fruit to eat, the place is brightly coloured, and pretty platforms are used to get from place to place. It's hardly surprising that the inhabitants of Cartoon World are so happy.

One of the happiest occupants is Arnie, a friendly cartoon car. He likes living in Cartoon World because it's very nice. But it's not going to be very nice for much longer. A malevolent and thoroughly evil cartoon character by the name of Captain Grim (who is obviously unhappy about being badly drawn or coloured, or whatever its cartoon characters get unhappy about) plans to take over Cartoon World and fill it with bad things.

So evil is Captain Grim that he's willing to go to any lengths to see his dastardly plans come to fruition. He's kidnapped Arnie's cartoon friends and filled Cartoon World with an army of Loony Toons. Now Arnie's angry. So angry that he's screeched his little wheels and sworn to restore goodness to Cartoon World and save his pals. But how?

Cartoon World comprises 48 levels - six levels for each of the eight themed lands. To complete a level, all Arnie has to do is jump onto and drive over the full length of every platform. As Arnie motors over them, the platform's "sections" are 'repaired' - the theory's a little like the ageing coin-op Amidar.

Platforms vary in length, from up to a full-screen wide to a couple of sections. They are deviously arranged in such a way that it's not always easy to get from one to the other with Arnie's limited capabilities. A suitable route must be found if all the platforms are going to be covered and Cartoon Land is to become a happy and very nice place once again.

1. Building Land The first land in Cartoon World is a construction site. Here the platforms are girders waiting to have rivets put in and removed. The aliens come in the form of wheelbarrows, earth-movers, pneumatic drills and plastic cones.

2. Toy Land A child's delight, this land is made up from Lego blocks and Stickie Bricks. Arnie must put a 'shine' on all the Lego platforms to complete the level, while teddy bears and Rubik cubes look on. Watch out for the toy trains.

3. Music Land Sheet music and notes provide the backdrop, while Arnie drives over the piano keys that make up the platforms. Suitably musical adversaries inhabit this level, including saxophones, cymbals and triangles.

4. Spooky Land In the dead of night, Arnie must clean up all the blood that's been spilt over the stone platforms and then progress inside the haunted castle. Watch out for Bats, vampires, ghosts, witches and mummies.

5. Garden Land You don't need Alan Titchmarsh to tell you that this particular plot of land is in big trouble. Arnie must 'cut' the grass from all the overgrown earth platforms and avoid the wheelbarrows and lawnmowers.

6. Prehistoric Land One Million Years BC (Before Car)... Drive over the fossilised bones to make them 'grow'. Car-eating plants, dinosaurs and cavemen are all out to make you the car that time forgot.

7. Wild West Land In true frontier style all the platforms are logs, and Arnie must paint them white to give the levels that rustic feel. Cowboys, indians, six-shooters and cacti provide the problems.

8. Weird Land The final level is suitably bizarre. The platforms are pipes that need to be filled in, and zips to be zipped up. Tortoises, hands and hammers stand between you and success.

What a beaut! Playing Car-Vup is reminiscent of playing the classic arcade and console games of years gone by, when playability took precedence over presentation.

The emphasis is very much on simplistic gameplay, with the cute graphics bolstering the arcade feel. As a result, Car-Vup is tremendous fun to play. It's been thoughtfully designed, with the layout of the levels combining with the progressively intelligent aliens to produce one very tense atmosphere where real the only guarantee of success - something that can't be said of many other arcade-style efforts.

With the wonderfuly colourful scenery and sprites, and suitably jolly tunes to accompany the action, Car-Vup delivers a superb slice of arcade action that passes its MOT with flying colours and promises to keep you going well into the new year.

Everything's the same as on the Amiga really. There's no parallax scrolling for the background, but the playability's no worse for it.

It's highly unlikely that Core will ever produce a PC version of Car-Vup. Sob.