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The Codemasters are back, with a game that owes slightly less than usual to the egg (they're never going to be allowed to forget "those games"). You play the part of Robin, on a mission through the sheriff's castle to rescue your sweetheart, Maid Marion. This is somehow achieved by collecting lots of hearts from around the castle, and taking them to her. I know. This guy's dating a cannibal. You think you've found a decent, honest woman... and she turns out to be a man-eater. Literally.

So Robin travels, flicking through screens stuffed full of platforms, ladders, huge insects and the corrupt men of the sheriff's law who're all armed with crossbows, in an effort to collect the hearts that can appear to be nailed to the walls, and take them to Marion who, presumably, will wolf the lot then marry you. Hold it right there.

I didn't mention the speech. For some reason, the Oliver Twins (who came up with the game) saw fit to include several sampled messages for you as you progress through the game, mainly involving Marion calling for your help every time you find one of those floating hearts.

I'll cut to the chase here - this game is fun to play. Robin can run, jump, crouch, and, more importantly, shoot, so you'll have no problems getting about. The castle is nicely designed with enough rooms to get you lost in no time at all, but also with enough to keep you so occupied you won't worry about where the hell you are.

Occasionally things do get a little irritating as Robin doesn't exactly move quickly out of danger, but this is still an enjoyable platform romp that'll keep you happy. Just don't take her out for lunch afterwards. 71%

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Now here's a game. People will tell you what a good game is and what it isn't, but this is a real game. I'm talking nearly Mayhem In Monsterland standard here. When you look at it, it's just another platform-style game, but it goes quite a bit further than that.

First of all, it scrolls vertically as well as horizontally, so you're not restricted to take one particular path through the levels. Secondly, you can go anywhere you like at any point - sections of the game aren't closed off to you, so once again you don't feel at all restricted while you're playing.

The plot is irrelevant, but probably involves journeying through an unknown land to defeat a tyrant. The bloke you control is anything but standard - he has a very powerful gun, loads of land mines, a laser beam, and the ability to turn into a large metal wheel and make serious progress in a very short amount of time. As well as this, you can get down to some serious jumping, as you don't have that annoying restriction of dying when you fall too far. So with this amazing set of abilities, you set off across the alien terrain, exploring caverns, towers, mountains, waterfalls, and odd metal structures, collecting crystals and blowing away everything that shows its face.

By way of a comparison, this is the useless man's Turrican. The game itself is wonderful, but you don't have to be all that good to explore the first level. If you were planning to buy Game Over 2 but you don't think you could get to grips with it, you might like to think about Turrican, as it's probably the closest you can get, and a darned sight more playable than its second removed cousin.

If you did decide to buy Game Over 2, you still ought to think about this one, as it's the kind of game that doesn't rely on difficulty or challenge to keep you occupied, but just lets you get on with running around killing things until you get bored.

When you do get bored, you can continue through the game and do all your normal challenging bits - there's enough to explore laterally before you have to climb the ladder of the game. So, excellent graphics, great sound, and a stonking good game to boot. Yippee! 90%

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Spanish games always look nice - it can't be denied that all that blue chrome artwork definitely works well in a computer game. Spanish games also invariably involve travelling from left to right across a horizontally-scrolling landscape, killing things, either as a space ship, a person, or a ground vehicle. Game Over 2 is the person variety and, as it's in the Spanish game style, is really very difficult indeed.

When I say difficult, I mean it. Your standard mission (to defeat whoever happens to be trying to conquer the planet) is hampered by incredibly hard bad guys, massively difficult timing (on far too complicated jumps), and the occasional part that requires the gameplaying skills of a minor deity.

There are many people who'd tell you that an unplayable game isn't worth buying, and they'd be right. The games released by Dinamic only really have one redeeming feature, you see - they don't stay too difficult for long. Well, this one doesn't. Once you get the hang of using your full range of weapons to your best advantage, you can settle down to play a game that'll probably keep you hooked until you're finished.

Gaming novices beware, though - this is not a game for the inexperienced. This is a gameplayer's game. If you rush out and buy it right now, don't expect any sympathy when you call the office and tell me how difficult it is. You should be pleasantly surprised by a release that doesn't patronise the hell out of you with level after level of irritating (and above all boring) ease. 80%