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Marty McFly and Doc Emmet Brown are back in more Mirrorsoft antics. Our reviewer heads out to the Wild West and asks, if this game is all about time travel, why didn't they just make the last one first?

Here we go again. Those time travelling tripsters Dr Emmet Brown and Marty McFly take another tumble through temporal timble tamble tooby taddie tiff... [Oh heavens! Andy's gone into an uncontrollable alliterative loop, THWACK - Ed] Ah yes, the third and hopefully final film in this epic trilogy has been converted of the screens of your C64. It's not that BTTF III is such a bad film but, frankly, another foray into all things temporal would be like flogging a dead horse.

Speaking of which, the plot of the film takes place in the old Wild West, Emmet Brown has gone to live out the rest of his life as a blacksmith in his favourite time zone and sent Marty back to nineteen eighty whatever-it-was. Sadly, Marty discovers that Emmet is to be killed by an outlaw called Mad Dog Tannen who just happens to be a forefather of Biff, the bad guy from the other two films. Marty goes back in time once more in order to save the Doc from certain death.

Level one involves Dr Brown and a horse. The doctor's sweetheart-to-be comes to town only to be carried away by her bolting horse and wagon towards impending doom over the edge of a ravine. You have to control Emmet's horse in order to ultimately save Clara. This level switches between a horizontally and vertically-scrolling chase sequence. On the horizontal bits you need to jump crevices and other obstacles while the scenery scrolls speedily by. If you time the jumps badly, the horse stops dead and the doctor is sent to earth with a hearty bump. The vertical bits show an overhead view and you must avoid boulders by moving right and left while shooting the outlaws who occupy the clifftops around you. Success in this level means saving Clara. Failure causes the prissy maiden to plummet deathwards.

In level two it's time for a bit of good ol' fashioned partying at the local hoe-down. Marty swaggers off to the shooting gallery to try his hand at target practice. This is all standard fare: the gallery is displayed on the screen with various moving duck targets at both the top and bottom of the area. In the central part of the gallery cut-outs of bandits pop up and down with disconcerting speed. Quick reflexes and a careful eye are needed here as once in a while (and rather oddly now I think of it) a cut-out of an old woman in a deckchair appears. The instruction booklet tells you not to blast the old dears but what the hell, there's nothing like popping a pensioner with your Colt [Don't try this at home, kids - Ed].

Onto the penultimate level which is the opening of the clock tower ceremony. As would be expected, Tannen and his cronies decide to wee on everyone's parade. However, in a blinding flash of resourcefulness Marty grabs a load of Frisbee Pie dishes and attacks the enemy with them. On the small screen you stand roughly in the centre of the town square.

Tannen's men appear from doorways and you need to aim your dishes in their general direction. With a bit of practice you can actually put quite a bit of curve on your throw.

When you run out of dishes you can get another batch of ten from the nearby table.

The only way Marty can get back to the present day is to shunt the DeLorean up to 88mph with an old steam train and some special fuel for its burner. This is the stuff of which level four is made. The train scrolls left to right and also jigs up and down, very impressively at that.

As Marty you must run, jump, crawl and climb along the train from the end carriage where you star, to the locomotive itself. Along the way you should have collected the Doc's speed logs [Must have been the All Bran - Ed] and must drop them into the burner before jumping into your time machine and going home. But the train is festooned with hordes of railway engineers and Mad Dog Tannen's henchmen, who hamper your progress. Apart from them, mail-hooks, water towers and signals provide even more life-shortening opportunities.

As in BTTF II originality has taken a short holiday. Each level is based on a formula we've seen more times than you've had hot dinners but each component is so polished it doesn't matter a fig. One of the major criticisms of the game lies in the first level.

The controls are so finnicky it can become annoying but perseverance will get you onto the delights of the rest of the game. The graphics throughout and particularly the sprites are bold, big and very well animated.

This, coupled with above average sound and gameplay, makes BTTF III seriously worth considering.

1. Controls on the first level are unresponsive and can be annoying.
2. Doesn't exactly ooze originality.

1. Variety of gameplay makes up for BTTFIII's short-comings and keeps you playing.
2. Apart from level one, controls are simple and responsive.
3. Key film scenes have been used to good effect.
4. Presentation is excellent with attractive inbetweeny piccies introducing each level.
5. Neat BTTF soundtrack.
6. Good attention to detail: curving frisbees, limp ducks at the shooting gallery, trundling train, it's all here!