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Creepiness is back in fashion. Once upon a time it was gross and ghoulish to collect dead beetles and watch gory movies, but now, with the return of The Addams Family, it's cool to be creepy. And there's nothing gorier or grislier on the C64 this year than Creatures II: Clyde Radcliffe in Torture Trouble.

Almost every C64 owner will remember the original Creatures, where Fuzzy superhero Clyde Radcliffe rescued his entire tribe from certain (well, certainly gory) death at the hands of evil Demons. Since then, Clyde has married a young Fuzzette and together they've raised a whole army of cute and cuddly Fuzzies. Unfortunately, happily ever after does not a sequel make, so, when the Radcliffe charabanc makes its yearly trip to the seaside, dark things are afoot...

Rather than take the easy sequel way out - and do exactly the same game with slightly different graphics - Apex have created an entirely new game. This is brilliant news for Creatures fans as there's a whole new world of death and destruction stretching ahead for weeks and weeks.

Clyde fans will remember the Demons from the first Creatures. Having been ousted from their original island by our fuzzy superhero, the Demons have settled elsewhere on a new group of islands. And this is exactly the kind of furry heaven that a Fuzzy father likes to take his growing band. One hot and sunny day, while Clyde is distracted, the demons fuzznap his kids and take them off to the other islands, where torture and death await - unless Clyde can get there first.

For anyone who hasn't seen the original Creatures, or read the Clyde Guide in the last few issues of CF, let's talk torture. In each torture screen, one of Clyde's offspring is tied, dangled or caged in a precarious pose, and if Clyde doesn't hurry, there'll be one less Christmas stocking in the Radcliffe household next year... Now Clyde can't just stroll up to the Head Demon dude and say "Ere, that's my Fuzzy you're toasting". So he has to devise a round-about method, either of rescuing the poor Fuzzy or stopping the process that leads to his imminent demise. And heck, it's really hard.

Much of the fun in Creatures II is in figuring out the ways in which all the machinery, props and demons interact with each other. Nothing is completely useless and some things are used in the most unusual of ways. Even if it takes ages to work out how to do a level, it never becomes boring because of the gorgeously gruesome graphics and wild humour.

But it's not all fun and torture in Fuzzyland. Between each of the nine torture screens, there's an interlude screen where Clyde can earn extra lives while rescuing Fuzzies. At the top right of the screen, a minor demon is throwing your friends off of a ledge into the abyss below - your job is to catch them on the boingy bed and bounce them to freedom on the opposite ledge.

Bonus lives can be earned by the Fuzzies collecting bonus tokens as they bounce through the air. But beware, these are not mere bonus screens, as letting a fuzzy fall, uncushioned to the ground, results in blood, guts and gore (as if there's any mishap in the game that doesn't) - and the loss of one of Clyde's own lives.

To get from one island to the next, Clyde has to swim through shark-infested waters, carrying the Fuzzies over his head. This is not as straightforward as it seems as Clyde can only carry one fuzzy at a time and as the Fuzzies don't have breathing apparatus like Clyde, they can't go underwater. This means that transferring all the Fuzzies you've rescued so far, involves more than a bit of puzzling as well as piranha-pounding.

If there's a down side to Creatures II, it's that it can be frustratingly hard. Apex have injected masses of humour into the game, which added to the excellent console-style graphics and animation, makes a game you'll just want to play and play. If you're a fan of the original Creatures, all you need to know is that this is an indispensable feast of frantic fun without which your life will not be complete. If you're an arcade junkie who's looking for action with greater depth than the usual shoot-'em-ups - or, if you're a puzzle partisan that craves a bit more action, Creatures II is one buy you'll keep coming back to for a long time. But, if you're just a sick-minded individual that likes to see blood, guts, gore and little furry animals on spits, Creatures II is an essential addition to your collection.

1. Hard for junior joystick jugglers.

1. A cute platform puzzler with a cutting edge (well several, actually).
2. Gorgeously gruesome graphics (and we do mean graphic).
3. Terrifically tortuous puzzles.
4. Brilliantly bloody Fuzzy death sequences.
5. Wicked sense of humour means that there's never a dull moment.
6. Sixteen soundtracks set the scene for slaughter.
7. Destined to be one of the Great Games Of 1992, with cartoon carnage that makes Creatures II a cute classic.