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To dismiss Ghost Chaser as yet another platform game would be like describing Zaxxon as a shoot-'em-up... true in as far as it goes but highly misleading for what it fails to point out. This game is heavy on atmosphere, extremely playable and graphically interesting. The hopping and jumping are just part of the enjoyment, not the be all and end all of the game.

Subdued, vaguely disturbing music accompanies the option screen while bed-sheet spooks waft nonchalantly around. A stab of the fire button sets your hopeful ghost hunter in front of a tumbledown mansion. Four boarded-up windows are visible but on one the pallets have crumbled just enough to let you squeeze through.

You now begin a quickstep through the corridors, picking up and lobbing balls of elemental psychic energy at big white ghosts and evading their smaller grey chums. There are trap doors to leap across, rails to scamper along and cellars to delve into. The idea is to exorcise all the disturbed souls and grab a key before moving on to the next cluster of manifestations.

Instead of the usual barely disguised scaffolding you will note some feeling of depth created by the use of perspective draughtsmanship. A neat touch in the animation is the shivering fit caused by the chilly clasp of the spectres. Exhaustion, untimely falls through a trap door or a mistimed leap turns you into a pulsating skeleton as a life is stripped away. All in all, US Gold would seem to have another hit on their hands with this well-worked scenario.