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Once upon a German coder's not-too-stretched imagination, there lived a happy dwarf couple, Bobix and Bobette. Bobix was the apprentice of the great magician Bennof, and loyal subject of Queen Beatraz. Tragically, old queenie caught a strange disease and died, but Bobix found out it was Bennof wot did it. Well, to cut a long (and very boring) story short, Bennof got wind that our friend was on to him and took off with Bobette. You've got to help Bobix save his sweetheart and avenge the queen's death.

To do this, Bobix has got to get his hands on four bottles of potion, each on separate islands. What we have is not a Dizzy clone, as the plot suggests, but a Mario one. Starting on the first island Bobix has to bounce around platforms collecting potions and diamonds and avoiding the aggressive wildlife he encounters along the way. He needs the diamonds to buy a boat to take him from one island to the next.

Each island features two levels of pretty routine but decent enough platforming action. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's reasonably well done. All the islands have their own distinctive style, and each one's just that little bit more difficult than the one before. In between islands is a bonus level in which you've got to catch balloons that blow past as you sail to your next destination. This, quite frankly, is more of a distraction than anything else. You'll just be itching to get on with the real action.

It isn't as much of an irritation, however, as the fact that you've got to pick up all the potion pots on every level. Some of them are very difficult to get at, and you can't go back if you miss one. You're also up against a tight time limit, so you don't want to hang around trying to get at well-protected pots.

Overall, though, Bobix ain't at all bad. The graphics are bright and colourful and happy music bops continually in the background. The difficulty level is just right, but the game is a bit short, so hardened platform experts won't take long to get through it. The biggest problem we had with the game is that it crashed occasionally, but hopefully The Electric Boys will have sorted out this problem by the time Bobix gets a full release.

1. It's pretty average platform fare.
2. It's well producted and the graphics are top-notch.

1. And there are a few irritations.
2. You'll just have to hope it doesn't crash.