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Vixen is a horizontally scrolling challenge involving the trials and tribulations of a young woman who has the unfortunate habit of turning into a female fox every so often. Hence the name.

When she is not jumping over crevices or collecting fabulous jewels Vixen is being attacked by "hordes of evil and vicious reptilian nasties". She is supplied with a whip to despatch the evil hordes in true Indiana Jones fashion. Most monsters need only a single lash to meet their maker, but as time progresses they get tougher and need a pretty good thrashing.

If she accumulates enough "fox points", Vixen mutates into something small and furry and has the chance to collect more precious stones. In this guise she is not attacked by anything, but must race against time to get as good a score as possible.

The movement of the figure is very good as she ducks, runs, leaps and cracks her whip. I would not quite go as far as the packaging which claims "film-like video digitised animation". The running fox looks brilliant, except when it jumps - then it resembles a flying sausage. The dinosaurs are just so-so, but are still very nasty.

Unfortunately, the choice of colours means that one particular reptile, the walking lightbulb, is rather difficult to see on a monochrome monitor.

The sole sound effect is that of the cracking of the whip. One flaw is the ability of the girl to jump in the air and change direction while still off the ground. This breaks a few of Newton's laws. It also comes in handy if you are going to land directly on top of a dinosaur.

Vixen is an addictive game, and should keep you occupied as long as you don't mind the lack of variation.

The B side of the tape feathers further landscapes to explore and monsters to kill, and any game that says "Spectacular music and sound effects Not 48K Spectrum)" on the inlay must be worth a look.

The game's packaging proclaims "Free giant poster inside". Martech's definition of the word "giant" is rather different to that in the Oxford English Dictionary. If "giant" meant "rather small and tacky picture of a bimbo in high heels and leopard skin bikini holding a whip" then perhaps it would be nearer the truth.

Once again the marketing people try to appeal directly to the hormones of young, male games players.