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Don't be fooled by what you read in the press - so far I've not come across anything vaguely raunchy or rude in Cool World. If you've seen the ads for the game featuring the rather curvaceous figure of Holli Would, and read the blurbs about her sex-starved antics you might have been led to expect an X-certificate game along the lines of Cover Girl Poker. But there's no reason for Mary Whitehouse to get upset about the game - it's a simple platform shoot-'em-up with minimal plot and some nice (not risqué at all, really!) intro screens. In fact, Holl hardly seems to feature in the game at all. Harris, the hero of the game, who's an ex-cop turned artist, is, thankfully, fully clothed. The most risqué the game gets is featuring a toilet and a washing machine. (Whoever heard of a single man having his own washing machine, anyway?)

The game is based on a film called (would you believe?) Cool World. Haven't heard of it? That's not surprising since it did so badly in the US it's being released straight to video over here. So what's it all about, Alfie? Erm, tricky one that, But here goes...

Holli's a doodle (a cartoon drawing by Harris) who lives in the two dimensional Cool World populated by folk known as doodles. She has a burning desire to be 'close to' a flesh and blood man from the real world instead of very flat men she normally has to put up with (you can't 'cock a doodle', as she puts it so euphemistically), and she's chosen Harris as her victim.

You play Harris who's found a vortex between his world and Holli's in his living room. He knows nothing about Holli's plan, only that a load of doodles are nipping through the vortex and nicking his video, telly, hi-fi stacking system and fondue set, and he's not happy about it. The doodles have created the vortex because their ultimate plan is to take over the real world completely and rule it with their strong, but inky, fists - but for the moment a few consumer items will do.

The aim of this shiny platformer is to maintain the balance between the cool and real worlds. If too many toons are over here, overpaid and underworked or if they drag too much real world stuff into their world then the imbalance is too great and they've won. Confused? Don't fret, even TMB took a while to figure this plot out.

You're armed with a fountain pen that both shoots and sucks. Shoot an ink pellet to turn a doodle into a black ink blob, then hold down fire to suck the blob into the ink reservoir in your pen. It's impossible to destroy every toon this way. The more you bust and suck, the more doodles appear. But it's not all in vain - each doodle you suck into oblivion means a few seconds taken off the time that you have to maintain the balance, making life a bit easier. Plus any blobs you don't suck turn into a nasty firing thingies.

Each level takes place in a different building. The game starts out in Harris' house. There are a couple of vortexes open between the two worlds and loads of evil little doodles are coming through. Harris can use these vortexes too - he can jump between the worlds and do battle with the doodles on both fronts. So if the doodles do grab Harris' vid, all is not lost because you can send him into Cool World to find it and send it back to the real world, so helping to keep the balance.

Harris is excellently animated; the sprite jumps and crouches in a very life-like way. The toons look fab - there's even a Roger Frames look-alike wandering around, along with plenty of other weird, ugly things. The levels are reasonably large, usually around three or four times the size of the screen. The main problem is the lack of a concrete goal, to aim for [I wouldn't want to use one of those in five-a-side - Ollie]. The 'maintaining a balance' theme is novel but lacks a sense of purpose - you don't get that feeling of elation when you complete a level which you get, say, when you cross the finishing line in a racing game. And with all the levels looking pretty similar in terms of the baddies you meet as well as the backgrounds - there is little incentive to progress through the levels.

Having said that, the great thing about Cool World is that things can end up getting very manic. There are doodles coming at you from all sides (touch one and you lose a third of your energy), there's a danger signal flashing at you and lots of very odd sound effects, which all add to the growing confusion. It's great fun to play at first, but long-term appeal is limited by the sameyness factor. Compare it with, if you like, having as many peanut butter and jam sandwiches as you could ever eat. Soon enough, you'd end up feeling sick at the mere sight of the nut and strawberry treats. [Speak for yourself - Dave]

One thing that has been bugging me is the absence of any human life in the real, or cool, worlds apart from our hero. Maybe if you had to rescue someone at the end of the level, from the evil clutches of the mean doodles, it might have been more fun. One has to have a point in life, you know, [Hey, this is getting deep - Ed]; just living to survive doesn't make for an exciting existence or enthralling gameplay, for that matter.

At the heart of Cool World is a great idea and, executed a little better, the game would have been great. As it stands this licence is fun for a while, but, if you like value for money in the form of lastability you'll probably turn back to Turrican II before you know it.

1. Good animation on the main character.
2. Large, colourful levels.
3. Smooth scrolling and fast action.
4. A very weird weapon.

1. There's not much long-term appeal.
2. Restrictive gameplay; it's all a bit samey.