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After their recent success with the brilliant Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo, Hi-Tec seem to have got carried away and launched the so-called 'Premier' range. On the evidence of The Jetsons, this appears to be exactly the same cartoon-licence stuff as before, except at nearly twice the price. The Jetsons is a game not all that far removed in style from the earlier Top Cat (In Beverly Hills Cats), inasmuch that the game's a straightforward runaround flick-screen arcade adventure.

The Jetsons have a problem you see. George Jetson is about to be sacked, or will be if his boss catches him sneaking out of work early to collect the others for a family picnic. Quite why this is important enough to risk losing his job is never made clear; but that's not important right now.

You control a different member of the Jetson family (a space age version of the Flintstones, oddly enough) in each of the four levels. You have to collect numerous objects and use them to get past various obstacles, mostly of the inanimate-object-bouncing-up-and-down-in-one-place type. After each level you get a little race section, which links the locations of the stages and provides a bit of much-needed variety in the gameplay.

So that's enough background. What you really need to know is, is this twice as good as all the old Hi-Tec cartoon games? In a word, 'no'. The Jetsons unfortunately falls among the most tedious of the old school. There is virtually no action to speak of and no recognisable connection with the characters on whom it's based, apart from the background graphics.

Basically, you run (well, hobble perhaps) around aimlessly, dodging the occasional, not-very-taxing baddie, picking up anything you might happen to see lying around. You have to try and use objects at random until they reveal the solution to one of the game's thinly-spread 'puzzles'. (If you can be bothered to make a map, this will let you finish the game twice as quickly - so it is advised.)

If, by some lucky fluke, you manage to stay awake until the end of level one (in which the dreary, if authentically spacey, music will be of no help whatsoever, it's not exactly a lullaby but it'll still have you dozing off in seconds with its twittering total lack of discernible melody), you get to play the basic race sub-game. This involves piloting your vehicle through a scrolling section of space or whatever, dodging obstacles again and occasionally slowing down to keep within galactic speed limits.

The graphics are very whizzy with good size sprites and 'proper Jetsons' backdrops. But when you look beyond the surface gloss you realise that there isn't really enough to do. It looks the part, sure, but this isn't a Jetsons slideshow, it's a Jetsons game. But what player involvement there is, is spoiled by multi-loads and dull design.

Overall, The Jetsons fails because there's a distinct lack of gameplay, weak characterisation and nothing to make you want to finish or play it again.

1. Characterisation is weak and design is lacking in imagination.
2. Very little thought required to solve most of the puzzles.
3. You'll be horribly bored before you're even halfway through.
4. Almost nothing exciting ever actually happens!
5. It's not very taxing. It's not frustrating, in fact it's not anything, really.
6. Dull, repetitive gameplay.
7. Dull, repetitive gameplay.
8. Dull, repetitive gameplay. By now, you should be getting the point. This is not a particularly riveting game.

1. Reasonable graphics.
2. Two gameplay types.
3. The backdrops are Jetsonish and there's a large poster in the box.