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Wally strikes again. Mikro-Gen's really making its lovable character something of a cult hero. And, even better, this game is very good indeed.

Wally is, the foreman of the gang, comprising Wilma, Tom, Dick and Harry. You can't really count Herbert, Wally and Wilma's enfant terrible, because you can't control him. You can control any of the other characters on screen.

If you press a character's number when they're not visible, a message telling you where they are will come up. I've only ever seen this schizophrenic method used in one other game - Operation Gremlin on the Oric.

Just to complicate matters, characters can wander off and create mayhem.

The aim of the game is to collect the various parts of the bank safe combination so it can be opened and the gang paid their wages. The combination's scattered all round the town and the pieces have to be taken to the safe in the correct order.

But that's not all - there are various tasks to be done: mending the fountain, repairing the gas main and the like, and each character has different skills.

All the tasks need different tools and equipment, and like the combination, these are scattered around. What you're carrying is displayed at top left together with a description to help you work out their use. "The good insulator" and "The fuse, blown", for example, are obviously items you want to get to Harry the hippy electrician.

The town is so well produced that at first you just wander about marvelling at the graphic detail. There are some minor attribute problems; Tom, for example, is surrounded by a green mist and Wally can't walk past a wall without casting a yellow shadow.

Each building - bank, bakery, shipyard, railway station and many more - contains a different game scenario.

Each location may contain food, drink, part of the code and/or useful items. Characters eat and drive to stay alive.

You may find yourself in a simple but neatly done version of Meteors in which you have to move to the red box on the other side of the screen to get to your destination. And, of course, getting hit will sap your strength.

Lives left are marked by golden hearts at the top of the screen together with a twisted purple bar, a measure of endurance left for the current life. This decreases every time you're clumsy enough to let your ward get hit by flying nasties, bitten by snapping desks or bump into Herbert.

This is a cracker, Mikro-Gen is justified in calling this software "sensational".