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Well, at least it's not an 'n' game. (But we're going to change it anyway!)

Folks, I'm reviewing Litil Divil at the same time as Super Stardust, and both games neatly support the same argument. That argument concerns the difficulty of games and goes along the lines of it is impossible for a game to be too difficult, merely unfair. Whereas the sudden fiery deaths of Super Stardust were quite clearly my fault, my inability to get beyond level two of Litil Divil is a problem to be laid at the scuffed loafers of the designers.

Let me regale you with an example puzzle from the game by way of explanation. The very room, in fact, that has defeated me. The idea of the puzzle is to get from the bottom of the screen to the top by leaping across a trio of spindly bridges. Plasma balls patrol the walkways, irregularly launched from spitting heads to bounce unavoidably along their alloted route. Since they are unavoidable, you have to jump back and forth from bridge to bridge in the best Frogger tradition until you can advance to a clear space. The speed of the balls and the sluggishness of your character, the demon of the title, makes completing the screen extremely tricky.

But that's not all. A section of each bridge is pointedly cracked and worn, and when you jump on to such a segment you discover why - it collapses beneath you, tumbling you into the abyss and leaving an awkward gap in the walkway.

But that's not all. A small hopping monster constantly monster constantly makes his way towards you, and if he catches you, knocks you off the bridge. You have to stay on the wrong bridge long enough for him to spot and follow you before making the jump you were planning all along. If the balls haven't got you by then, of course.

But that's not all. In common with the rest of the game, your demon has a bit of an independent view on movement. Sometimes he'll respond dutifully to your button-pushing, at other times he might go in completely the wrong direction. Or he might just not move at all. The rascal.

But that's not all. The creakingly forced perspective of the graphics makes judging jumps fiendishly difficult. Should you jump forwards? Left? Diagonally forwards and left? And once you've reached the far door (a feat I managed exactly twice!) in what direction does the game consider it to be? It might appear to be forwards (or left) (or diagonally forwards and left) but, stunningly, lunging the joypad those ways seems to do nothing at all. I'd be tempted to say that, like so many other puzzles, you probably don't have correct object to complete the screen (for example, a beat-'em-up room has you fighting a sumo wrestler but no matter how many blows you land, your opponent shrugs them off and batters you to a pulp. Collect the pin from another room, however, and you can pop the villain like a balloon! There's no indication that this might work, and it's only after scrapping for a few, vitally soul-destroying seconds that the demon impishly takes it upon himself to use the pin on his own initiative) but since you've had no chance to pick anything up, that's obviously not the case.

But that's not all. Although this room is blocking the way - you can't get further into the game except by completing it! - after six attempts, the room resets and you're thrown out. And you have to go back in straight away, except it's not quite straight away because of the universally slothful but up until now not generally accepted to be mentally tortuous maddening CD loading times.

But that's not all.

When you start Litil Divil - before getting to the game, or even the load saved game screen - you have to fight this troll on a bridge. It's a pointless exercise (no matter how many times you get hit, you can't be killed, and you start the main game with full energy), tediously unpredictable (sometimes your blows connect, sometimes the troll dodges them, sometimes he just flattens you before you can move), you can't skip it, and it appears to be there only to make you very angry before even beginning the game proper.

This consists of walking around some 3D tunnels that look identical except for the amusing obstacles scattered about (holes in the centre of the tunnel that you can't see until you're upon them and spikes at the sides of the tunnel that you can't see until you're upon them and many other similar irritations) and picking up energy-replenishing food or gold which you use to buy objects in the shop. It is, basically, a giant 3D maze with an auto-mapper (except the auto-mapper doesn't indicate in which direction you're facing, so you keep going the wrong way).

This leaves the puzzles. They're beautiful things. They glister. But, readers, as that wise old saying solemn-noddingly corroborates, they are not gold. They are, in fact, disguised versions of the walking along and hitting people beat-'em-up, the follow the leader shapes game Simon, and the board game Downfall where you twiddle interlocking dials to jog a prize into your hands. They are but a tiny, tiny part removed from the rooms of Dragon's Lair. That series of games, you will recall, required you onto to move the joystick at certain points. In Litil Divil, you have full control over the character, but always within straitjacketing parameters.

I tried to approach Litil Divil as a player, all bright-eyed and excited about the prospect of the first real not-about-to-turn-up-treacherously-on-the-A1200 CD32 game. I've been cruelly and completely disappointed.

Mayhaps the remainder of the game does improve sharply, but I can't equate drastic change with the initial levels' identical troll-maze-crashingly unfair puzzles machine. (The PC version certainly didn't get better, and if the programmers have beefed up the gameplay as they said they had month, why put the rubbishy bits first? It doesn't make sense!)

Litil Divil is an extremely poor game, and that is that.

Uppers: The animators of Litil Divil really have got the hang of timing. The demon's got character, the monsters are splendidly villainous and the gags are funny (my favourite being the bit where the demon shines a torch under his chain to scare away some monsters).

I've never really rated the Dragon's Lair graphics (they're large and fast and smart and clear, but the gags are just flurrying slapstick) but Little Divil really impressed me. Just the right amount of sound, too: te music's nondescript lute stuff, but the incident-triggered voice effects crisply enliven the action.

Downers: Depressingly predictably, the gameplay. Unfair, simple-minded, repetitive in the tunnels, unfair, simple-minded and haughtily antagonistic in the rooms. It's like they didn't want you to play. And I'll admit that I've only got to level two, but not for want of trying.

A great piece for the artists' portfolio; a great piece of evidence against the designers when they fall into the hands of the ruthless secret police.