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Who? The Addams Family? Never heard of 'em. Before my time. Hang on. I'll just ask Trenty... Yeah, he says that apparently "they do what they wanna do, say what they wanna say, be who they wanna be and, er, dance when they wanna dance". Glad I've cleared that up. Now here's the review...

After phoning Hollywood, I managed to find out that the plot of the smash movie has got nothing to do with that of the Ocean game. Lucky for me, that, as I didn't get to see the film because I was too busy working on the last storming issue of CF at the time.

The game plot wouldn't actually tax the brain cells of a retarded amoeba. Gomez, the guy with the pin-striped suit, has lost all the other Addamses, and is basically wandering round a computer game trying to find them. Guess who you have to play? Wrong. You have to play Gomez instead.

If I said that this is all the boring preamble to a platform game, you'd probably say "Oh no. A platform game! I bet this is the boring preamble!". But listen. This is no ordinary platform game. If you've ever been completely flummoxed by a tough platformer, been stumped by a difficult timing puzzle, or been knackered by a hard baddie, you'll be at home with The Addams Family.

The game itself is fiendish. Don't expect it to be kind. Before we go any further, let me stress once again that The Addams Family is very challenging. If you've ever played Jet Set Willy on your C64, this will remind you of it. Tough city. The secret is in the timing. You start outside the mansion where Fester, Morticia, Thing, Lurch, Wednesday, Thursday, and Thank-Crunchie its-Friday live (except, of course, they've gone missing). You can slither explore the outside of the house or dive straight through the front door and get stuck in with the bad guys.

These bad guys - what we want to know is, just who are they? Well, there appears to be someone called Tully. I've never heard of him, but he seems to have some connection with the local Council. His plan is to have the Addams Family's crumbling mansion on Cemetery Lane condemned, and get them chucked out on to the streets. To be honest, this sounds like a pretty good idea. I mean, you should see the state of it. Anyway, this Tully chap has assembled thousands of ghosts, spikes, monsters and other nasties wandering around the mansion, trying to stop young Gomez from getting around easily.

All this means that our hero must become a total master of timing. It has to be said that the guys who programmed this game are absolutely brilliant at setting puzzles, tricks and traps, and every screen is packed with the sort of probs which will have you scratching your head until a bald patch appears. Instead of just jumping from platform to platform, you've got to dodge the pointy stars, jump on the baddies (well, some of them) and basically keep moving, avoiding, leaping and planning to reach the safe spots.

All this is bad enough, but you've also got an energy limit which is continuously counting down. The only way to keep it topped up is to go for the little hearts which occur on certain screens. The worry here is, though, that these aren't exactly placed in the easiest positions to reach. It's those dratted programmers at work again. In fact, I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to get a heart because my energy has been getting a bit low, and ended up losing a life, because I've been rubbish at reaching one (which probably wasn't really at all vital anyway).

Every screen you enter is packed with gorgeous graphics (many of which are in the background, and don't play an active part in the game). The number and variety of baddies is certainly impressive, and, as I've said before, what's so brilliant is the way you've got to plan your way through the screens. It's tough, it's barely possible and it's something you just can't leave alone until you've cracked it.

Dotted around the mansion are a large number of doors. Most of these you can just walk through, but some require that most useful of things, a key. The coloured keys can be found all over the levels but, like the hearts, they're never in easy places to reach. Getting them is always worth it because you can keep them until the end of the game. They also work on all the doors that are the same colour as them, throughout the entire game, so it's almost worth losing the odd life to get hold of them.

So, overall, I reckon The Addams Family certainly lives up to the hype. It's a licence that has really got little to do with the film. But, purely as a platform game, it's one of the best. It's got excellent graphics, it's fast, it's got loads to do and the puzzles are difficult but very rewarding to get through. What more could we want?

1. Maybe, just maybe, it's too tough.

1. But I reckon it's challenging and addictive, with loads of screens to explore.
2. The graphics are neat, fast and atmospheric. Loads of weird backgrounds and rapidly moving baddies.
3. Spiffy sound effects.
4. Plenty to collect - lots of keys, hearts, weird pointy things and other stuff.
5. Many restart points, so you don't have to start from the beginning each time you play.
6. It's a triumph of the puzzle-setter's art.
7. Credit facility allows you to have loads of serious attempts at it per game.