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Even CodeMasters must finally be getting tired of that eternal egg, Dizzy. In the last few months, they've come up with several new 'characters' to impress and delight us: Seymour the slug, CJ the elephant, and now Big Nose the, erm, caveman. And what do they have in common? They're all cute and they're all replacements for old Mr. Hardboiled.

Anyway, Big Nose has been caught up in a time warp (great idea guys). He's been sneaked off from some Palaeolithic grassland to a large and nondescript modern day American city. New York, in fact. And pretty annoyed about it he is too. What's slightly worse, six of Big Nose's animal friends have been captured, bunged into crates and hidden around the city. As he wanders about, he must first find the keys to their cages, then release them.

So let's not beat round the bush any longer. What we have here is a large platform game set on and around a building site. Why it's a building site is not very clear, except that it makes an excellent setting for a platform game.

Big Nose has got three main enemies to contend with: policemen, construction workers and fires. The first two wander up to our stocky chum at irritating times, and if they manage to touch him he's dead. The fires travel back and forth on many of the platforms. You're dead if these touch you too.

Luckily the low-foreheaded chap has brought along with him an infinite supply of rocks to throw at any honest citizens of the 'Big Apple' who try to get in his way. One shot will kill any of the men, as well as putting out a fire.

There are loads of collectables around the place as well. Big Nose has discovered a penchant for hamburgers (something he didn't have too many of back in pre-historic times) and he scoffs them whenever he can. They give him a healthy points boost, as do various soft drinks. But beware - if you spy a foaming tankard of beer, it could make you a tad squiffy and you may not be fully responsible for Big Nose's actions. That's all I'm going to say about it...

The worst pick-up actually freezes you for a few seconds - long enough for some nasty to jump onto the screen and wipe you out. Life is unfair for a poor caveman in the twentieth century (ask Sylvester Stallone).

Now, what it all boils down to is this - do you like platform games? If so, then you'll find Big Nose challenging, big and satisfying once you get into the swing of it. The game is rather cute, with biggish sprites and cuddly characters, but don't let that fool you. There are some fiendish bits that will take all your platforming skills to tackle and beat.

The only things wrong with it are that the ladders require you to have pixel-perfect positioning before you are able to go up them and the character is sometimes too sensitive, jumping twice when it should only have jumped once.

But, with practice, you can overcome these little hurdlettes. And so, once again, the Codies seem to have come up with the right formula - a stupid plot involving a ridiculous character, plenty of gameplay across a huge area and a few taxing problems along the way. It's frustrating and it'll drive you mad (especially the tough bits you can't do for the first 177 times). You can get hooked on Big Nose's American Adventure.

1. Control is a tad sensitive.

1. Bright and eye-catchingly colourful graphics make it a rather cheerful affair.
2. Smooth and fast, too.
3. Just the right difficulty level to get you frustrated enough to keep you playing.
4. Jolly little sound effects, which fit perfectly with the fun atmosphere.
5. Puzzles stretch your mind as well as your 'stick skills.
6. With six animals to try and find, it's also big, big, big.
7. An original budget game which will please all platform game fans through the Spring and into Summer's heady pleasures.