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The first thing I noticed about this game was that the instructions are wrong. Why, for example, when I press the F1 key, does that awful din they describe as music not stop? Ah! It's because F3 stops the music. But then which one pauses the game? You can soon work it out, but it's annoying that they can't get simple things like this right.

Topper is what's inevitably referred to as a platform game. All platform games are the same in as much as they involve a character of some description who hops, skips, jumps, or whatever around various rooms. Usually, objects are left lying around to be picked up and there are all sorts of horrible things which will attack you. It's not uncommon for the odd lift or two to make an appearance so that you can move between levels.

Topper conforms to all the standards. What differentiates platform games is the storyline and the final objective. Here, Topper the Copper must hunt down a murderer by finding eight clues which are locked in safes dotted around Mad Marvin's caverns. Who's Marvin? Good question.

Once all right clues have been found, a riddle must be solved in the courtroom. You can then reveal the bloke wot dunnit and look forward to retirement on a commissioner's salary. Among the suspects are the imaginatively named Col Green Sworde, Serg Grey Rifle and Captain Scarlet Revolver. Topper's not the most difficult platform game I've come across, there are only fifteen rooms for example. At nine quid it's a bit overpriced for what it has to offer.