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The Golden Eagle returns. Did you know it ever went away? The original Golden Eagle game was a big hit on certain 8-bits a while back, and now those trickily-named French persons have revived the concept in a bigger and better sequel.

Actually there's not much to the "concept" at all. There's some nonsense about future zombies, slaves, broken eagles and suchlike, but what it boils down to in the end is a platform game - a futuristic one.

Crawling, running and boinging around a large space base, your job is to find the four bits of the aureate flapper. You've got a laser gun, natch, with which to dispatch the guards around the base, and the usual range of manoeuvres to outwit them. Along the way you find information posts which enable you to access - er, information. You can check up on the things you've learnt so far, see information on the other characters you might encounter and even have an enjoyably unrelaxing game of Reversi.

All the character graphics in the game have been digitised from videos of the genuine article, resulting in some well smootha and convincing sequences. Sadly, though, the background graphics aren't anything special. The sound effects are goodish but not up to the usual standard of a French game.

Golden Eagle is a good, old-fashioned platform game with a few extra bits - like the information posts - bolted on to ease the tedium. They don't work all that well though, because you soon get bored of the same old scenery, the same challenges which never stretch beyond timing a move past an energy gate or shooting guards. Still, you can always watch your man falling off a platform with perfect choreography for a while. With games like Another World about, there's no reason at all to settle for something second best.

1. Inevitable comparisons abound to Prince Of Persia, but really the only similiarity is in the character movement. Prince Of Persia is the better game - it's better structured and more fun to play.