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Licence-free games from Ocean are about as rare as someone winning the car on Bullseye, but when the Manchester Maestros do pop up from behind their movie and coin-op cover, the results are often better than the games with famous names on the boxes.

This arcade adventure, programmed and developed by Nirvana Systems (see the Work In Progress in Issue 30) in just such a case. Its basic format isn't new by any means, but it's just about as good an example of the type as you're likely to see, incorporating many of the best ideas from previous games of the style and adding just enough new ones to keep the pot boiling.

The story is about the most hackneyed part of the whole package though. Your character, a young Elf called Cornelius, takes it upon himself to fight through eight hostile environments to rescue his girlfriend, Elisa. This poor unfortunate creature has been kidnapped by the unspeakable Dark Lord, a mad scientist who whiles away the hours in his ghastly forbidding castle high above the elves' village by performing cruel experiments on any unfortunate creature who comes into his grasp.

To help him get on top of things, Cornelius is wearing the magic ring which has been passed down through countless generations of s family. At first this only fires a basic spell, but it can be upgraded at the many magician's shops (you didn't know that most magicians are shopkeepers, did you?), where the pint-sized adventurer can also turn himself into a hero (which means that all shots bounce off him) or a wolf (so that he can fall any distance) and pick up countless other aids - as long as he has the right cash of course.

Don't take too long browsing though, Elisa is at this moment being lowered into a vat of some disgusting bubbling chemical - and what's more... the Dark Lord's laughing his head off.

A good arcade adventure is a joy to play - unfortunately you could count the amount of good arcade adventures that have been released in recent times on the fingers of one of foot. Thankfully, Elf puts this situation right. OK, so the actual gameplay isn't going to win 1991's Most Original Game Idea award (if such a thing exists), but as long as the gameplay's there, then total originality isn't absolutely essential - and there's no shortage of gameplay here.

If exploring and shooting's your thing, then there's enough here to keep you happy 'til the cows come home (and even until they've been milked and sent back out again), however if you thirst for a little more depth, then follow me.

In order to get the most out of Elf, the puzzle-solving element is at least as important as the action (if not more, it's diffcult to decide). And while the puzzles range from the childishly simple to the infuriatingly obscure, there are enough hints dotted around to allow you to complete every one. In fact, some of the levels are almost completely puzzle- or maze-based (one fiendish section sees you tackle the problem of getting a series of moving platforms to move just the way you want them to, no easy task) while others increase the carnage to compensate.

And if I've given the impression that there are no new ideas at all in here I apologise - how about these for starters? Whenever you die, a gravestone appears in that spot from then on to mourn you. Then, if you pass that way again, chances are that your own ghost will rise up to have a pop, also the option to only save the game at the end of each level means that cheating is more or less out of the question.

It's a pity that you can only have either music or sound effects playing at any one time (apparently, this is due to Ocean France's custom-built sound software), but the fact that that's the only real fault I can come up with speaks volumes.