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Right. Trent says I'm banned from making any jokes about 'getting quacking' in this review. Hmmm! This one's going to be a toughie. I mean how can you do a whole review about a game based on a vegetarian vampire duck without one quacking joke? [I'm sure you'll find a way - Ed] Oh well, let's get.. er... cracking.

The game is aimed at younger kids. Count Duckula and his two faithful servants, Nursey and Igor (looking strangely different to how he appears in Frankenstein) crash land their "time- and space-travelling" castle turret on the the Planet cute. They lose their lightening conductor - a vital component of the craft apparently - and the Count has to go off in search of it.

Unfortunately, the planet - as planets always are in this sort of game - is populated by nasties... or in this case cuties. It's littered with cute toys, such as tin soldiers, dolls, jack-in-a-boxes and other ancient playroom tat that no streetwise kid of today would be seen dead with. If Duckula accidentally bumps into them he is cutified. If he becomes too cutified, he will be stuck on the planet forever!

The game begins with a brief blasting section with the turret flying through an asteroid belt. This simply involves avoiding the asteroids and blasting them for points. But after that, it's a platform puzzler. There's loads of leaping around to be done and a bit of shooting, but it's not an all-action game. There's no time limit; instead, when you come to each screen, you have to stand back for a few moments, check out what's going on and work out how to get to the other side.

On each screen there is a mixture of vanishing and moving platforms and cuties. You become more cutified if you fall too far - in which case you start that screen again - or if you bump into a cutie. Cuties can be temporarily paralysed by shooting them with your tomato sauce gun. This only has a limited supply of ammo, but you can replenish it by picking up sauce bottles that are scattered about. There are also cornflakes packet tops on some screen; collect four of these and you get temporary immunity.

The main sprite is large and moves well, the graphics are colourful and bold and there are some well nifty bits of animation that are true to the spirit of the original cartoon. But the game is all a bit too static and you never get the feeling that it's going anywhere. It starts at one level of difficulty, and remains on that level. Some of the screens are not so much difficult as awkward, requiring a level of accuracy that's out of step with the rest of the game; one false move and you're trapped, being cutified at an alarming rate and there's little you can do. The collision detection is pretty poor, as you can avoid a cutie by miles and still be cutfied. Also, with no password facilities, when you die, you have to play every screen again from the beginning!

But some of the puzzles are intriguing, and for young kids they're a great introduction to more complex gaming. It's a sound, basic game with a few irritating flaws, but with enough of a fun quotient to appeal to the age at which it's aimed. But they'll soon tire of it and demand something with a bit more meat. Unless they're vegetarians in which case they'll demand something with a few more lentils.

1. The animation is generally good and true to the cartoons.
2. It's easy to get the hang of.
3. Serves as a good introduction to platform puzzling for younger kids.
4. It takes quite a bit for you to be completely cutified, so you last a long time to play each game and discover what to do.
5. The sprites are well-executed.

1. Not much variation in the gameplay - it's very repetitive.
2. No learning curve - the difficulty level is about the same throughout.
3. The sound is sparse, which is lucky, because what there is, is dreadful.
4. Some of the screens are not particularly well thought out.