Chuckie Egg 2

Ross: Hen House Harry's back but he's no longer running round collecting seed while avoiding maniac hens. Harry's chucked up his rural roots to help out in a chocolate egg factory. The ladders and platforms have partly been replaced by ropes and travelators and there's not a caged bird in sight. Harry's task now is to collect all the goodies that go into making a choccy egg as well as the pieces of the toy to go inside it

Harry can also pick up and drop many items that may help him on his way. For example, the first problem you come up against is an outsized pooch that's far from friendly. To get past him you have to collect a bone and then drop it at his feet. The dog then turns away, his tail wagging with pleasure and lets you pass. In the next 117 screens be prepared to meet all sorts of nasties and to face many more problems.

Harry runs around and bounces off walls in the same hectic way as he did in the original Chuckie Egg, but somehow the game lacks a certain appeal. To be fair to A'n'F they haven't tried to produce a clone of CE 1. But by going for a game with 120 screens, each screen lacks a lot in the way of content.

You'll find your path is generally easy and very often there are no nasties to stand in your way. Still, it's enjoyable enough, though it may not appeal to the more sophisticated games player. 3/5 HIT

Dave: Reasonable graphics, smooth movement, more platforms than Waterloo Station and about as addictive as British Rail coffee! 2/5 HIT

Roger: As platform stuff goes, this is bad enough to make a chap chuckie up. Never mind the 'henhouse', I'd put Harry in the doghouse... 1/5 MISS

Spectrum
A & F
Arcade Adventure
£6.90

It was too much to expect really. How could anyone come with an idea as simple, as funny, as infuriatingly addictive as Chucky Egg? A&F have wisely chosen to depart from the formula of their classic game in its successor.

Chucky Egg 2 is more in the mould of the arcade adventure, even though it features the same hero - Hen House Harry - and another eggy plot. This time Harry's job is to help get chocolate eggs made.

He must collect the ingredients, put them in the vat and then find the components of the toys that go inside the eggs. Once an egg's finished he has to send it on to despatch.

Before he can enter the factory he has to get past a huge and slavering red dog. A bone comes in useful. Once inside, the first screen - of 120 - presents the problem of getting through a room in which deadly spiders are bouncing up and down on their heads.

Then it's on to a maze full of birdies, a stomping boot that seems just a little too familiar from other games of this ilk, mixtures of ladders and platforms, and so on.

There isn't too much to surprise you in the way of gameplay, but it's all very well designed and it's certainly not an easy game to crack.

I don't think anybody's going to play this game for three weeks non-stop in order to get a high-score of 10 billion, but it's good fun and has lots of tricky puzzles to crack.