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Oi Ed, there's a mouse. Eeek, where? There on the the stair. Where on the stair? Right there, a little mouse with clogs on. Well, I declare! Yes and it's going clip clippety clop on the stair.

That naff joke was just my way of introducing Summer Camp from Thalamus. In it you play the part of Maximus Mouse, who is in a right old two and eight, because the day before the summer camp was due to open, he discovered that the American flag had been stolen. Horrors!

Maximus knew exactly where to find a replacement but getting to it was going to be the difficult bit and this is the task you, as the player, must undertake.

Summer Camp features four increasingly difficult levels all running along a different theme. The aim in each is to collect a number of crates containing parts of a vehicle which transports you to the next level. Each vehicle has more components than the last, making assembly trickier, the further into the game you get.

Movement controls are very simple (left, right, and up to jump) which means you can leap straight into the game. Level one is set in the camp itself, in which large dogs and deadly birds threaten to ruin your day. Many of these hazardous inhabitants follow a rigid movement pattern, but there are others who home-in on you, given a chance.

Meanwhile, to help you get from one platform to another, balloons provide a useful mode of transport. They carry you to crates that would otherwise be unobtainable. Max can also walk on clouds and use bouncing balls to jump higher. In addition to this, there are a number of icons which, when collected, provide various helpful bonuses. Level two takes place in a wild west setting in which saddles replace the balloons and a sproingy bed provides the motive power for a higher than normal jump.

Level three consists of a gold mine full of psychopathic miners and large hooks in the ceiling which Max must grab onto to escape death by pickaxe. The fourth and final level takes you and Max to the moon - where Max has chosen to get his flag, though I'm sure he could have found one closer to home. This is where Maximus gets to complete his task.

However, as I mentioned before, each of the first three levels contain a number of crates to collect containing vehicle components: level one is a car, two is a sort of digging machine (Jules Verne style) and three is a spaceship. Level four contains components that build up to make the flag. Once you've collected a vehicle's parts, a sub=game is accessed in which the components are displayed along the top of the screen and Max appears above a number of platforms.

By pressing fire while standing over the right platform, one of the vehicle parts slots into place. If you press the wrong platform at any time, all the components return to the top of the screen. The quicker you make the vehicle, the more points you obtain. It all becomes extremely complicated.

Graphics are colourful and cartoony with good sprite animation and humorous touches. Now and then collision detection is a trifle suspect but it overall Summer Camp provides an excellent challenge. Polished game design and a superb theme ensure that both the visuals and the playability provide nothing less than long term enjoyment.

1. Perseverence reaps great rewards.
2. Bold and colourful graphics.
3. Animation of sprites is great.
4. Humorous touches come thick and fast.
5. The theme of each level is implemented very well. Every scenario is embellished with unique features.
6. There are puzzles aplenty. In later levels every screen represents a simple puzzlette.
7. Collect icons for a variety of ingenious new abilities.

1. Collision detection can, at times, be less than accurate
2. Difficulty may put off some folks.