Raise your bourbon bottle, everyone who ever wanted to be a private eye. Well, here's your chance. Gumshoe is an amalgam of Donkey Kong, Manic Miner and other variations of ladders and platform games - but don't let that put you off. It's addictive, full of clever little touches and slick animation.
The scenario is familiar to everyone who's thought the line, "Here's looking at you, kid." Millionaire's daughter kidnapped; you, the noble hero, hired to effect the rescue. Having tracked the band to a multi-storey apartment block your ordeal begins, in addition to finding your way through the maze of ladders, laundry chutes, elevators and two-way escalators.
This is the largest kidnap gang in the history of organised crime, but your potential reward is good. You start with a retainer of $500 and gain and lose money as you go. The scoring system is just one of the notable features - you earn a $10 bonus for every baddie you gun down, but each slug for the .45 costs you $2. If one of the gang takes you by surprise you enter a bout of fisticuffs - a graphically funny encounter from whirling fists and on-screen 'biffs' and 'zaps'. If you lose, it's the big sleep for one of your five gumshoes. Win and you live to fight another day - but you get docked $150 medical expenses.
There has to be one criticism so here it is - the sound doesn't live up to the graphics.