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It's seemed inevitable since the first Lethal Weapon film came out that there would be a game based on it. They've all been popular films which can easily lend themselves to a game, so why has it taken two sequels to finally get round to it? Well, never mind that, it's here now in tandem with the third instalment of the series.

Now the business of licensing films for games is one that should be exciting - films offer an excellent chance to tie in the game plot with that of the film, you've got ready-made characters from the film to represent in pixel form, all the scenes are already set, there's an atmosphere to be conjured up. So why is it that film tie-ins so rarely manage to be any good? Let's see if this one's any different.

From the start it's got a good chance of being a winner. The films usually involve the two characters wandering along the street and bumping into an international drugs ring smuggling something into the country, so there are no confining plot restrictions. They're action-packed affairs, there are bundles of humour, the characterisation is superb (well, Mel Gibson's mad-man-with-a-police-badge routine is the high point of most of the films) and it all looks thoroughly suitable for a game.

Loading it up you first get to choose which of the two characters you want to be. Oh, so it's not a buddy buddy affair like in the films? Well, maybe that wouldn't have been such an easy thing to weave into a game, and it may not have been so exciting anyway, so let's move on. Next you're presented with a platform scenario. That's OK, it's what you'd expect with this kind of film, a good platform thriller with plenty of thrills and spills. Wait a minute, this first level's not very exciting is it? Oh, it's an intro game type thing where you have to go and choose the mission you want to go on. You wander round this office and you can enter three rooms where you're offered a mission that you either accept or turn down. There is a fourth room which is marked classified, and you can't enter here until you've completed the other missions. Aha, a goal - looking good.

So let's try this one. Blah blah dockside, blah blah container filled with money, blah blah drug racketeers - sounds perfect, where's the gun? So off you go down to the dockside on your first mission. It's all standard platform type stuff. You jump around shooting baddies, while they jump around trying to shoot you. On the way you can pick up more ammunition and weapons, there are a few secret rooms and locations, and you can also fight hand-to-hand too.

And it's, er, boring. It's just like a typical platform game except the backgrounds are dull, the action is non-existent and the sprites are poorly animated. No, let's try another mission, maybe this is just a tame one to get you going.

Mission three - blah blah hostage, blah blah steelworks - let's go. And guess what? It's no better.

The other mission is another cliched scenario, and this time you're in the subway where a terrorist group is planting bombs on the line in order to hold the city to ransom. And again it's standard platform stuff, with no surprises.

But let's get this straight, it's not a crap game. There are elements of it which are rather good in fact. It's just that it's nothing special, and if you're parting with £25, you want to be sure that you're getting something worthwhile, something that will stick with you, that you'll want to carry on playing for ages. This isn't it.

It's another case of nice film, shame about the game. Some brilliant potential for an action-packed affair has ended up as an average platformer that never really picks up into anything truly exciting. It has its moments, sure, but not enough to make it a recommendable game. It's undoubtedly going to be a hit, but it really doesn't deserve to be.

Quite manic and a good challenge. A competent, straightforward platform game.

It's not at all original, it look smooth but uninteresting, the animation is limited and it lacks any real excitement.