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"Too risky!" Do you remember that immortal Jim Davidson line? It ranks alongside Caesar's "Et tu, Brute?" Des Carte's "Cogito ergo sum" and Barrymore's oft-quoted "Awright! Awright! Awright at the back?"

Risky Woods is a fantasy-style platformer. Although those very words are enough to make your heart sink, the quality of those games which proudly call themselves fantasy-style platformers ranges from magic to tragic. Although, to be fair, most sit around the middle zone, content to be entitled dismal. Enough light-hearted twistedness; the game is all about your quest to collect keys, release imprisoned folk and generally survive to see the end sequence. To do this, you must be quick with the joystick, plus have a working knowledge of the magical items you collect.

Magic is the key to the game because, although you've got endless knives to throw at folk, this is time-consuming and inefficient. There are endless streams of nasties hurtling towards you at every turn, and you can spend all your time-credits just standing in one place, firing blades at them and collecting the coins which drop down from their shattered and vanishing bodies.

The magic option is much nicer. You can do a lot of damage with magic. Smart bombs, cluster bomblets, even sort of weird laser-beam things all owe their very existence to magic (in Risky Woods, at least). And you're going to need firepower like that when you face some of the boss baddies at the ends of some of the levels.

What about these coins, then? Well, they give you purchasing power in the shops which you encounter. Extra weapons can be bought, extra chunks of life and a wide range of fashion accessories and quality knitwear products. It's like the Edinburgh Woollen Mill with a gun counter.

But it doesn't matter how many cardies you wear and how much magic you've stored up, Risky Woods doesn't get any easier. Every between-platform jump you do has to be pixel perfect, and every baddie that attacks always seems to reach you. It's an annoying itch of a game which you know you should beat, but which stimulates your larynx into uttering sweary disbelief every time you lose another life.

The graphics are suitably fantatic - in the fantasy sense - and everything runs quickly and smoothly. The game is also big enough to impress even the tallest of your relatives, and although there is a stock group of nasties, there is a fair bit of variation.

It's too tough, though. It if started easily and got tricky around Level Two or Three, that would have been fine and dandy, but this swine makes your nose bleed right from the outset. Don't blame reviewer crapness - it really is difficult. Honest.

1. Jolly magical japes in the land Jim Davidson forgot. 2. Lovely visuals and plenty of action.

1. As tricky as that bloke off Eastenders. You know, the really tricky one. 2. A few more real surprises would be nice.