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It's not often you discover elephants in Austria especially pink ones. But this pachyderm, The Electric Boys poached from Europe is something a bit special. Heavenbound is the first official release from The Electric Boys following their mission to trawl Europe for the best C64 software and bring it back here to the UK. And they could hardly have picked a better example to show how impressive some of the stuff Eurocoders are producing can be.

The game is from the same team who produced Fred's Back 3 which we reviewed last issue (and which, paradoxically, won't be released just yet - these international licensing deals are a nightmare apparently). We gave that a thumbs up. This one gets an even higher thumbs up (er, if that makes sense).

T-phant is missing, according to the intro, and he's heavenbound. Which doesn't really prepare you for what happens in the game. You control a pink elephant who leaps between clouds and rocky outcrops in an attempt to get to that great watering hole in the sky (has he got some weird death wish?).

Anyway, on the way loads of nasty what-nots try to knock him off before he reaches Nirvana (presumably sending him to Old Nick instead). Some. spit fire, others throw cannonballs, a few dive bomb, but all of them are lethal to the touch.

There aren't levels, you just keep on going. You've got three lives and a time limit, but there are time bonuses dotted generously around the place so that you can keep on going - you don't have to complete the game within the 65 seconds with which you start the game. Phew.

The gameplay is a bit limited, but it does get tougher at an intelligent rate. You need to hone both your joystick dexterity and puzzling skills to get past some of the later obstacles. So what the game loses in variety it makes up for in sheer playability. It is surprisingly addictive once you get the hang of the admittedly muddy and unresponsive controls.

What helps is that the aesthetics are gorgeous. It looks and sounds nearly as good as Mayhem, and even the intro and loading screens are impressive.

On the minus side the collision detection is dreadful, but at least it works both in your favour sometimes so that balances things out a bit.

Overall, though, it's a very impressive game. Let's hope The Electric Boys can discover more where this came from.

1. Completely lush graphics and music - very impressive.
2. Immediately playable, and gets trickier at an intelligent rate.
3. There's a great cast of nasties who just keep on getting nastier.
4. The rabid hunt for time bonuses keeps things interesting.

1. Absolutely appalling collision detection - you fall through clouds!