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When six world leaders are captured by a terrorist with a name like Crax Bloodfinger, then there's no time for pussy-footing. You gotta send for Joe Blade.

If the cover pic is anything to go by, then Joe's a wild-eyed Tommy who goes around blasting at ammo crates with his sten gun. Probably the product of the Bazooka Bill Academy of Charm and Deportment, you think, and you get set for some quick-firing, fast-moving mindless mayhem.

So it's a bit of a surprise to find that Joe ambles happily around Bloodfinger's fortified HQ like he's doing the shopping in Safeway's, calmly shooting at the guards who obediently fall into neat parcels of bones. The guards never fire back, either, merely draining Joe's energy should he come into contact with them.

Obviously then Joe Blade isn't a shoot-'em-up at all, and if that's what you're expecting you'll be disappointed. It's more of a maze exploration game, with Joe searching for the hostages, and picking up items and points along the way.

The playing area is pretty huge, with tree-lined pathways connecting buildings constructed like rabbit warrens. There are dozens of similar rooms, with brick walls, barred windows and prison cells, and map-making is essential if you're to avoid travelling around in circles.

The six hostages appear at random throughout the HQ, positioned anew at the start of every game, so you've always got to explore every single room for fear of missing one. Locked doors can be opened with keys which the guards, as is usual in computer games, have left scattered around on the floor. There's also food and ammot to be found, and uniforms.

Putting on a uniform does two things - it makes Joe look indistinguishable from the enemy, so that movement becomes confusing, and it also renders him (temporarily) invulnerable.

The graphics are colourful, with solid sprites moving against detailed and deliberately repetitive backgrounds. There's some adequate music to begin with, and a few assorted effects which sound no different from a million other games.

But I've left the best bit 'til last. It's not enough to find all six hostages, you've also got to locate and prime six bombs. As soon as Joe bumps into one of these, the priming screen flips up, displaying a five-letter access code. Using the joystick to swap letters, you've got half a minute to put them into alphabetical order before it explodes in your face. If you succeed, then the countdown starts, leaving you twenty minutes to free the hostages and find - and prime - the remaining five bombs.

It's a simple device, but amazingly effective, and it's hard to stop yourself panicking, swapping letters like crazy, each time you start to prime a bomb. And though Joe can jump over the bombs to avoid priming them, he's got to get round to it sooner or later, and that'll mean finding them again.

Ridiculously simple, ridiculously addictive, Joe Blade is the most enjoyable game I've played this month. That probably says more about the other games than it does about this one, but at £1.99 it's got to be worth playing.