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With the new Indiana Jones movie about to hit British audiences and the game due for simultaneous release, let us look back at the Indy's less-than-successful computer game life. He's appeared in two games: the original Raiders Of The Lost Ark, a substandard Atari VCS adventure, and the conversion of the less-than-brilliant Temple Of Doom arcade game. The most interesting thing about the life of Indy is that there have been few clones - or, at least, none I can remember. Enter Rick Dangerous, archaeologist and hero extraordinaire (sound familiar?).

Rick Dangerous is also the first arcade game to be released by Firebird since they were acquired by MicroProse, and pretty good it is too. Guide Rick through four different adventures, each made up of a series of puzzles. Some will take you minutes to figure out (well, they did me!) and some seem so blatantly obvious you'll be laughing your head off, just before a spiked rock falls from the ceiling and smashes you to bits.

The game is played as a side-on, flip-scroller with some really cute graphics. Just to show how hard he is, Rick bowls along and grins. The only time he stops smiling is when he dies. Still, that's to be expected.

The backdrops are pretty hot too. Very detailed, yet very well designed. At no point are they confusing, even though they are drawn in ultra-mega-Amiga-resolution mode.

There's not a lot more I can say about this surprisingly simple but appealing platform and ladders game. It's addictive. It's fun and there are enough puzzles there to keep almost everybody happy (especially people who like They Might Be Giants).