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Not having yet seen the movie of the same name, I can't say whether or not The Goonies bears any resemblance to it, or whether knowledge of the film makes the game any more enjoyable or easier to solve.

I say solve, for what we have here is yet another of those running-jumping-climbing platforms and ladders arcade games where the basic idea is to puzzle your way through several different screens.

Not again, I hear you cry. 'Fraid so, but at least The Goonies has one novel redeeming feature which prevents it from being written off as just another in what has now become a long line of played-out game scenarios.

In order to solve each scene, you need to get the two on-screen characters (Goonies) to work as a team. Goonies are children, by the way.

Only one Goonie can be operated at a time - you simply switch control to the other by pressing the joystick fire button.

Unfortunately this unusual and interesting gameplay concept is almost wasted here because the other elements in the game - contents, graphics, animation, colour and sound - are nothing to get excited about.

The Goonies' goal is to reach One-Eyed Willy's pirate ship and grab the treasure. To do this, the Goonies have to progress through eight scenes of underground chambers. In each of which puzzles have to be cracked and the exit found before they can progress to the next chamber.

Each scene has to be separately loaded in from cassette or disc when you reach it and you can only ever start at the first scene.

Once you've lost all of your lives, you must reload Scene 1 in again, a real pain if you're using a cassette deck, since this also means rewinding the tape to the correct position.

Various hazards along the way for the Goonies include member of the dreaded Fratelli gang, lava pits, rocks, steam, bats, cannonballs, bullets, flying skulls, slime and a giant octopus. The Goonies move around by running and leaping, climbing and bouncing, the latter on trampolines.

Although the teamwork concept is a good one, the game is sadly let down by rather blocky and uninspiring graphics, while the use of sound and colour is both limited and unexciting.

Included is a hint sheet whose rhyming couplets should help you in solving each of the screens.

The game is worth playing if only to try out the twin character feature, but don't expect anything earth-shaking from it, or you will be disappointed.