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I won't complain about Spiky Harold being unoriginal, but it looks like the platform game is here to stay. You either like them or lump them.

Spiky Harold was out on the Spectrum a few months ago, was recently converted to the C64, and now a bloke by the name of Simon Sorsbie thinks that we 'mini micro' owners should have a go at helping Spiky Harold get his 4,000 winks (i.e. hibernation).

Actually hibernating is no problem, just nip into any nearby cranny and count ants jumping over a matchstick. Those leaping ants shouldn't be imaginary though. Harold needs them to nibble when he gets a bit peckish during the long winter.

The nice BBC weatherman has forecast an extremely hot sunny day in December. [Just as if - Ed] Harold remembers the last time he listened to such a forecast - he nearly ended up on that great prickly bed up in the heavens - a sharp frost is on its way.

Guide Harold around several screens collecting apples, grapes, pineapples, eggs and wine glasses. As you can see, Harold is more into desserts than any kind of real grub (a bit like me), as for the wine glass it makes you go a bit legless - the controls get reversed - some wine, eh?

To stick to the rules of usual platform games you have a large supply of lives. N-n-n-n-nineteen to be exact, and to be honest I reckon it's possible to clock with only one life and lots of care and patience. Oh yes, there's an unhealthy number of other creatures wandering aimlessly around the underground chambers who kill on contact. They include: flies, bees, bats, worms and snails.

As this was converted from the Spectrum everything is single coloured and looks very dated, but does have some neat animation. Harold walks as if he's had a good boot up his rear and his legs look like shock absorbers, I quite liked the way his prickles shuddered as he strode along.

All of the other creatures in the chambers were also well animated and looked, well, nice. There is very little variety in the sound department, with no tune, although the soft, crunching of Harold's feet was very effective and there's a loud crunch when he bites an edible object (I don't think the poor prickly knows how to hibernate).

There are a reasonable amount of chambers to explore and to help there are coins which you can pick up to get an extra life - at one stage in the game I had 21 lives!

It's not all easy going though, there's a time limit. No need to fret though, because you've got 24 hours to finish the grub gathering and these are not game 24 hours. You've got a real 24 hours to complete the game (i.e. start Saturday afternoon, finish Sunday afternoon). After a while you'll get a bit bored and you may end up doing stupid things to liven the game up a bit, don't bother, most of my lives were lost due to my impatience. I'm going to persevere because I want to see some conkers, sulphur clouds, bouncing balls and peeping periscopes that the blurb goes on about.

What Firebird have here is a nice little game which leaves many of their previous efforts lying in the mud, in my opinion this is good value for money but I'd only recommend it to diehards or newcomers.