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Richard Morningwood [Oh ffna-ffna - Ed] has a big problem in this tongue-in-cheek platform romp, aimed at a more mature audience. His two sons Brad and Kyle have discovered his stash of old adult magazines and scattered the pages all over the house. Richard must pick them up before his long-suffering wife Betty sees them, taking them to the bin in his basement mancave.

Richard's stress is building rapidly, but is reduced by successfully picking up and dropping off the pages. Complete a level by collecting all the pages and a bonus score is awarded, with the remaining stress level deducted. Running into his kids, Betty (from level 2) or the builder Camp Freddy (from level 3) will cost Richard a life - as will dropping through the holes in the floorboards of later levels. Fortunately Richard can jump over the holes, as well as hiding behind beds or plant pots to avoid colliding with other people. An extra mini-game (after levels 2 and 3) sees Richard trying to collect flying beer glasses while avoiding Freddy and other objects; surviving till the end of the timer adds an extra life.

On level 4, Richard's fearsome mother-in-law Fannie comes to say in the house - and she will chase him even more determinedly than her daughter. Should Richard complete that fourth level, he can safely fall asleep... Until he dreams about Fannie attacking him from above with her dentures (which create a dangerous shockwave when they land, sending Richard's heart racing even faster - shown by the ECG trace). Richard's only defence is to collect sweets and throw them at her until she is defeated.

Mancave includes a trophy system for achieving certain goals. For example, the Speed Demon trophy (and extra bonus score) is awarded for picking up three magazine pages quickly. Trophies and high scores are saved to disk, and the inertia on Richard's movement can be set to FULL, MILD or ZERO.

A hark back to times when you'd find this stuff in the local woods, not via Safe Search Off on Google cough anyhow... Mancave is exceedingly tough in the beginning but becomes gradually easier as you understand the strategies, and figure out which bits of furniture you can hide behind.

Bizarrely, level 3 is arguably less tough than the previous two due to the gaps in the platforms! The achievement trophies are a nice inclusion, with the soundtracks and cutscenes inducing a wry smile.

Touches like these endear the game to the player, together with the bonus sections should you reach them. Ultimately there isn't a lot of variety, but if you are willing to look past that and concentrate on the challenge presented and treat it as an old school high score chaser, then give right in.

Although there is nothing explicit, this is perhaps best suited to adult players with its sarcastic comments on marriage. The side-on view of the house is neatly drawn and populated with some impressively animated (and diminutive) sprites.

It is all backed with a superb collection of SID music, featuring memorable covers by Roy Widding. However, that initial impression is spoiled by some flaws. The difficulty level is very high, partly to compensate for the small number of levels. The hiding mechanism is OK but feels under-used.

And while it can be turned off, I found the inertia too hard to wrestle with which frustrated me even further. Another stylish game from Megastyle, if you can put up with that high difficulty.

Okay, so I'm the humourless berk who's no fun at parties. First the good stuff, though. The graphics are really nice, particularly the sprites.

The hi-res look works really well for this game, especially considering the size of the characters. The gameplay is initially appealing, with the fetching and carrying being easy to get the hang of, but design flaws soon niggle. With only five levels, the brevity and lack of variety prevent this from being a long-term proposition.

Unfortunately, the humour, which would have probably made me laugh thirty years ago, just made me cringe. I think if I actually left a stash of jazz mags laying around for my kids to discover I'd probably end up on a register in this day and age, rather than being shouted at by my 'long-suffering' family.

I don't find it offensive, but I would suggest that in 2019 it's misjudged and the game could stand on its own merits without it. I feel that with some tweaks this could be decent, but it missed the mark for me.

Presentation 90%
Great title screen, cutscenes and clever trophy system, though bitter humour may rankle some players.

Graphics 86%
Small but beautifully-detailed sprites potter about some splendid locations.

Sound 80%
Selection of tunes will have you singing along.

Hookability 79%
Easy to get into - though the (optional) inertia is off-putting.

Lastability 70%
Four levels (and two mini-games) to conquer may see Mancave relegated to the shelf in a short time.

Overall 76%
An original game suited to tough gamers.