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Cool Coyote is, indeed, cool. Cooler in comparison to dungaree-wearing plumbers or blue-rinse hedgehogs but, as Andy Hutchinson discovers, not really up there with Prince

This is the ST gaming world's answer to those insidious lumps of mindless plastic known as "consoles" which are corrupting the software scene to such a great extent. Renegade is pitting Fire And Ice against the Marios and Sonics of this world and may eventually put the game onto a console in a fiendish world domination bid. Fire And Ice is a platform game written by Andrew Braybrook, a veteran of the home computer scene. Mr Braybrook - as his bank manager calls him - has produced such classic games as Paradroid in the past and so has a lot to live up to.

The main character and future global icon in Fire And Ice is a chap called Cool Coyote. Mind you, "Cool" may be overdoing it a bit - when you see him on-screenn, padding about in a pair of Oakley shades, you're left in little doubt that this is a serious fashion-victim. In fact, he probably only goes down to his local igloo on a Saturday night to tell all the chicks... erm, penguins how great he is and to pose languidly at the bar. Perhaps Renegade should have plumped for something like Clarence Coyote, or possibly Clifford Coyote instead. But enough about him, what about the plot?

Well, a jolly nasty magical beast, called Suten, is hiding on earth. He's escaped from prison where he was incarcerated for totalling a solar system. Obviously the inter-galactic authorities would like Suten to help them with their inquiries, so they've sent out someone to look for him. That person is Glemm.

Now Glemm has a big problem - he can't materialise on earh himself or Suten may detect him. The solution is to recruit an earth creature to do all the dirty work and then help the creature in subtle ways. Glemm picks on Cool Coyote, inhabitant of the North Pole and golf partner to Father Christmas.

Unfortunately for Cool Coyote, the evil Suten's black magic has started affecting earth's creatures. So, the general credo is to shoot every critter in sight whether it looks cute or not. Not only do Cool's animal adversaries very from land to land, they also get nastier as the places get hotter.

The landscape also creates problems, with chasms and jumps all conspiring to stop you reaching the end of a land. To complete a level you need to collect the six parts of a key by zapping creatures and then jumping through a handy temporal space-portal-cum-potting-shed door. It's not all bad news, though. Cool does have weapons within his armoury and these can be souped up thanks to power-ups left dotted around the landscape by Glemm. The basic weapon is an ice pellet gun. This freezes the enemy for a few seconds during which time they can be shattered. Power-ups include three way shots and large pellets.

No game would be complete without a smart bomb of some sort and Cool Coyote's version is made of snow. Snow bombs can be collected by firing ice pellets into the clouds.

When you release a snow bomb it freezes everything that's on-screen at that moment. You can carry seven of these at once, so they're a good backup weapon.

On his journeys around the earth, Cool Coyote meets some friendly puppies which are immune to Suten's evil. Go near them and they follow you around. The puppies are equipped with ice pellet guns and fire when you do. They also yield an extra life when taken through an end-of-level door.

Although the game can be played straight through in a linear fashion, it's also possible to leapfrog worlds by finding handy secret exits. These are hidden in peculiar places and are generally discovered completely by accident. Unless, of course, your name is Andrew Braybrook, in which case you should be programming the sequel. The difficulty of each level has been well weighted - there's no way you're going to be able to complete this game in an evening. Even the first level presents you with difficulties and it doesn't get any easier as you progress. Fortunately, there's a trainer mode in which you can experience the other worlds without having to plough your way through to them all.

One great feature is that you can play the game from the keyboard. In the "old" days there always used to be a keyboard option but, with the glorious advent of the joystick, programmers forgot that precise movement was possible from a humble QWERTY. So cast off your joystick and check out keyboard movement, it's much more responsive.

Welcome to the wonderful world of platform games. There are so many good touches in Fire And Ice that it's difficult to know where to begin. Braybrook has spent a lot of time tweaking the game and has created a platformer to rival Rainbow Islands or Magic Pockets in the process.

Graphically the game is stupendous. The background graphics and platforms are colourful and attractive, while the sprites are wonderfully animated. Full marks must go to Cool Coyote for the comic strip way he pads about the screen and nearly topples off the platforms.

Edge detection is, again, brilliant. There's none of this ridiculous balancing-on-platforms-by-the-toes business. If you go too near the edge of a platform you fall off - the same goes for jumping onto it. It's an unforgiving system which requires practice.

The dynamics of each world work really well. Learning to skip about on ice is a lot of fun. You have to think twice before running around a level because you can't come to an immediate juddering standstill every time you're faced with a bit of "local difficulty" - like you can on normal platform games - you just keep sliding.

What we have here is a program fully deserving of a place in the collection of any ST owner. Fire And Ice is to the ST what Sonic is to the Sega. However, unlike Sega, you get a decent hero in a gripping adventure with some brilliantly addictive gameplay and a long, long shelf-life. Welcome back, Mr. Braybrook, and "Yo!" Cool Coyote.

1. Sizzling gameplay, cute graphics, addictive action, oh and a sharp main character who's naked bar a pair of Oakley shades. Radical.