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With spit of slug and eye of dog another platform concoction is brewed up. Rob Mead tries it and turns into a frog.

Forget the Hannibal Lecters or Adolf Hitlers of this world, there's an evil sorcerer on the loose. He's unearthed the Chest of Curses and subjected the people of Cauldron to his tyranny. Even worse, he's roped in the cuddly plants and animals to do his dirty work for him and turned them into violent, vindictive little snots. Unsurprisingly, doom and gloom soon spreads across this once tranquil land.

Super Cauldron is a platform game with a female heroine as its star. You play Zmira, a wise old witch who's been left with the responsibility of defeating the evil sorcerer and returning the land to peace and prosperity. You have to cross four worlds - the Enchanted Forest, the Field of Spells, Zythum and the Haunted Castle - in search of a key which unlocks a chamber to a magic book. Collect all four magic books and the evil sorcerer is defeated, and your mission is accomplished.

With all these bad vibes going around, you know Zmira's going to need something to defend herself with. At the start of the game she's only armed with a humble Stone weapon, but you soon find more power-ups as you cross each level - everything from Fireball weapons to Magic Bridges. You can also find potion bottles - which boost your rapidly diminishing energy levels - and cauldrons which give you extra lives if you need them.

The big problem with Super Cauldron is that there's a long and illustrious history of platformers on your ST and this game simply can't compete. Recent games like Sleepwalker showed the way for the future with its original plot, sexy graphics and staggering gameplay, yet Super Cauldron falls down on all these points. It feels curiously old-fashioned, owning more to old ST games like Elf than its comtemporaries - you just can't help feeling you've seen it all before, yet this doesn't stop Super Cauldron from being an enjoyable game to play.

There's enough tension and frustration in the gameplay to keep you at your ST as you guide the cute little witch around the four different worlds and their associated sub-levels. There are plenty of baddies for you to take pot shots at, even if it does take a heck of a long time for some of them to die - try experimenting with your weapons to see which ones work best. There's also a fair amount of detective work involved as you try to solve some of the puzzles and hunt everywhere for those hidden collectables and sub-levels.

All of Zmira's moves on-screen are controlled by your joystick, including access to her Spell Book inventory. The graphics are well drawn but uninspiring, while the sprites' collision detection is competent. Annoyingly, there's no way to turn the in-game music off and keep the sound effects on, but you don't really miss them. One good feature is the ability to save your current position on the game disk, although you can only do this at certain stages - try to save just before a dangerous leap and you find the game has saved the start of the sub-level instead.

Super Cauldron isn't going to win any awards for originality, in fact it's hugely reminiscent of Elf. The linear plot positively creaks under the weight of its forebears and there's nothing particularly startling about the gameplay - it's just the usual leaping around, shooting baddies and picking up collectibles. However, Zmira and her pals make up for the cornball with addictive gameplay and a pretty high frustration factor.

Super Cauldron is addictive and fiendishly difficult to play.

It's completely devoid of any originality and you have to start again when you die.