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It must be tough being an elf. Even the youngest, trendiest dude of an elf can't escape the fact that he is, in fact, a mythical children's character and a twee one at that.

The particular elf in question here. Cornelius, is having an even worse time of it because his girlie's been kidnapped by some evil old git or other and he has to rescue her. This makes a feeble excuse to involve Corny in a platform game over eight levels.

The aim of each level is to, er, get to the next. But you can't just saunter through them to get to the end because there are many impassable barriers in your way. (Plus a gigantic end-of-level meanie.) Barriers can be removed by judicious use of the objects, herbs and buildings scattered about the levels.

For instance, your first barrier on the initial level is a locked door guarded by a harmless Chinaman. A quick chat with him reveals that he's partial to cooked chicken. So now you know what the uncooked chicken you've found is for - the only problem is how to cook it. It's simple - give the birdseed you've also found to the hungry bird, who gives you a feather in return. Give the feather to the Indian in the tent and he gives you some old newspaper. Give the paper to the unfortunate soul stuck in the WC without any bog paper, and he gives you some matches. Now all you need to do is find the roasting spit and unlit fire, light it with the matches and cook the chicken. Bribe the Chinaman, and you're through the door.

Wandering about, you can collect certain rare herbs and harmless animals - pets. These are used in the two or three shops on each level to buy add-ons, such as an extra life or a flying machine. Each item requires a particular combination and number of herbs and pets, so you can plan which item to buy next by collecting appropriately.

While all this is going on you're constantly harassed by unfriendly creatures (crawling, flying and walking) which, when dispatched with a few shots, leave behind bonus tokens and occasionally health top-ups. Right at the end of the game you're given a rating ranging from "Pleasant" to "Hell Spawn" depending on the number of harmless woodland creatures you have gratuitously killed.

The graphics in Elf are nothing short of superb. The first thing to hit you is their colour - everything's bursting with it, including the multi-shaded sky behind the action, achieved with a little clever programming. The creatures are well animated, nicely detailed and move exceedingly smoothly. Although the screens flick rather than scroll, they do it very quickly and don't detract from the action. You can switch the sound between a bearable tune and even better effects.

There are other subtler touches to the graphics. When you die, a gravestone marks the spot, which subsequently produces rather alarming ghosts of yourself which hassle you every time you enter the screen. When you shoot a harmless creature, a comment like "boo" or "shame" drifts off the screen just to make you feel bad.

Elf truly deserves the label "arcade adventure" since it combines traditional platform shenanigans with exploring and experimenting. Just when you've looked everywhere, collected everything and are still stuck, you meet another character and it all falls into place. Although you begin with four lives, you have to be careful with them because you're constantly being drained of energy. An excellent touch is the Save Game facility - when you finish a level you can save it to disk and skip it altogether next time around. Finishing a level is no piece of cake, though.

It's refreshing to find a platform game that keeps you occupied for more than ten minutes, yet has wonderful graphics and addictive gameplay. So, for the inevitable pun, buy this game - it's good for your "elf".

1. The best platform game to appear since Switchblade 2.
2. More involved than Magic Pockets.
3. Has a graphical flair that makes things like Monster Business look awful.
4. Tough, but not as hard as The Killing Game Show.
5. Much more to do than in Rodland!