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Trolls used to be terrifying monsters - that lived under bridges and ate babies. Now Flair are trying to convince us that Trolls are actually cute and cuddly folk with big hair. Well, it convinced Trenton, or at least it did until the gameplay started to bite!

Plastic Trolls are making a comeback - in a big way. They first invaded these shores way back in the 70s, and once again they're sweeping the country, this time armed with even more more powerfully sickening 'cute' appeal than ever before. Each week new models of the dratted things are unleashed - surgeons, skateboarders and even, would you believe, street fighters?! So why am I being so negative? Because these supposedly 'soft' folk are the stars of a game that has me totally beaten, that's why!

Why do people think that Trolls are cute, anyway? It beats me. Folklore says that they're all warty, come from the less interesting parts of Scandinavia, run illegal toll-road rackets and habitually deny goats their constitutional rights. So I suppose it's hardly surprising that the game with their name is pretty evil.

Trolls is a find-'em-up set in a platform-maze. Hidden within a twisted system of walkways and walls are: a) baby trolls who need rescuing and b) the exit, which rescues you. Your mission is to visit each level of each world, bag a few babies and then high-tail it away. It may not be much as plots go, but what do you want from your plastic toys - grand opera? [Uh, yes! - TMB]

Right from the start, from the first step on Level One, World One, it's painfully clear that beating this game is going to be a struggle. The baddies hide in places where it's all but impossible to 'butt' them (in classic console style you kill your enemies by landing on them with your bum) but they're always surrounded by enough bonus balloons to make the risk worthwhile.

Leaping around the various worlds takes some getting used to. For starters your Troll can leap very tall things in single bounds. As skills go, this should be useful, helping you to reach that lofty perch where Mr Bonus invariably resides, but this is rarely the case. As your Troll bounces, you see, he can pass through higher platforms, which is fine and dandy if there are no monsters stood on them, but totally life-threatening if there are.

More strange (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) is he way that your Troll can be twisted and tuned in mid-air. Sure, controllable jumps are nothing new in the world of C64 gaming, but the limits that Trolls takes it to are extreme. With a huge jump height and a high hang time you can work your blue-haired boy into almost any nook or cranny - you have to, because this attribute has been mercilessly exploited by the game's designers.

You can take all the time in the world to reach the end of each level, but Trolls makes it difficult to be careful. The pace of the jumps and the speed of the monsters make nimble joystick work essential, while the claustrophobic nature of each level means that you're barely out of one frying pan before you run into another fire.

Trolls at its best is fast and frantic. The blue-one 'nings around the screen like good 'un, the monsters appear at just the wrong moment and the bonuses are tantalisingly out of reach. Getting to the exit flag once you've worked out the route never seems that tough; the tricky bit is not being side-tracked by tempting bonuses, trying to save an extra baby or attempting to get to the end that little bit faster. These things will lead you astray; its their job and they do it darned well!

Trolls isn't always fair. In fact, at times it seems like an outright cheat. Monsters blip in and out of existence, they always get the benefit of collision doubt and the post-box screen hides many dangers from view. This is infuriating in the short term and downright maddening in the medium term, but the game's always strong enough to eventually drag you back.

It's often claimed that the quality of a game can be judged by the quality of its graphics. Normally, I'd respond, "huge steaming piles of male cow droppings!" (or something similar) to such complete nonsense but, for once, in the case of Trolls, it's true! The graphics are good and so's the game. The whole thing is vomitfyingly cute: 'Candyland', 'Fableland' and the 'Cherry Soda Sea' - need I say more? Yet Flair have filled each of these worlds with wildly whacked-out characters that are fun to watch but tough to beat.

If a new range of baddies for each world wasn't enough, both Fableland and the Cherry Soda Sea also add little gameplay tweaks of their own. Fableland hangs fatally in mid-air and swimming in the Cherry Soda Sea totally changes your jump dynamics. These changes keep Trolls' gameplay varied.

Trolls is good. It's fast, the characters are enjoyable and the game itself is solid enough to keep you waggling for hours. It's not the biggest game in history, and fast-fingered trigger-fiends will swiftly finish it. But even when you've saved enough babies to become a real Troll (it's that plot again!) there will still be bonuses you know you missed, kid-trolls that haven't been rescued and levels that can be finished quicker. And when you've done all that you'll still want to have another go - because you think you're hard enough!

1. Brilliantly daft sprites.
2. Wonderfully controllable jumps.
3. Well thought-out levels with loads of nasty bits.
4. It's got a frantic pace piles on the pressure.
5. Each world has a different feel.

1. No extra lives or energy.
2. Not that big, just tough.