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The Scooby-Doo gang are like the Famous Five without the short trousers and acne. In case you've been living in the Outer Hebrides without a telly, the cartoon fivesome consist of Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, the latter being an outside dog with the courage of a garden snail.

Elite were pretty pleased to get the licence to do this game until they discovered that Shaggy and Fred wear flared jeans, thus condemning them to a life of sartorial misery.

Having played this game for longer than it takes Steve Davies to line up a shot, I have overwhemling evidence that it's a load of tosh. The scenario (what there is of one!) goes like this. Scooby must rescue his badly-clothed mates from a haunted house. The house has four levels and one member of the gang is imprisoned in a jar - that's right, in a jar! on each of the levels. Assorted ghostly nasties assail poor old Scooby on each level.

So what does Scooby have to zap the nasties with? Not a photon blaster, not a laser phaser, not even a stun gun. He punches them. He has an upper cut that would make Frank Bruno envious. But Scooby is supposed to be a canine coward. Oh well, at least Elite got the flares right.

On level one, Scooby must rescue Velma by biffing his way past spooks that appear out of doors and podgy, open-mouthed ghosts. He makes his way through corridors, up and down stairs, negotiates dead ends and holes in the floor and munches the odd Scooby snack (extra points). The idea, you see, is that this is a platform game.

Level two presents him with ghosts on springs and weirdies that look like Indian waiters bouncing up and down on a whoopee cushion. Level three introduces the ghoulfishes which look more like Cyril Smith yawning than anything else. Lastly to his master Shaggy himself, the one with the stubble on his chin. Here, Scooby must punch his way through the mad monks - another variation on the Cyril Smith theme.

There is a practice mode that lets you take each level individually before trying to complete the game in one go. Practice mode is a good idea, it proves that playing the game for real may be a viable alternative to watching any programme featuring Paul Daniels.

It's a great shame that Scooby-Doo is such an ancient and worn out game because the graphics are pretty good. Unlike most other cartoon conversions, Scooby is large and very well animated. When a ghost bashes him, he does a few cartwheels and then flips over onto his back, paws in the air.

The ghostly nasties are impressive creations too. Movement is smooth and Scooby can jump, duck and punch in both left and right directions. But the actual playing area on the screen is rather small and that may be a trade-off for the good animation. Sound is pretty nondescript except for the catchy tune you get on the title screen.

Scooby-Doo is an attractively presented but ultimately unexciting game. It makes no attempt to cover up the fact that it's just another platform game. That said, Scooby is almost impossibly difficult to play on the higher levels, but we all know that toughness is no substitute for good gameplay.

If I were Scooby, I'd just make for the Scooby snacks and go and lie down somewhere. Velma, Daphne, Fred and Shaggy had better face up to spending a lot of time imprisoned in their jars.