Cartoon Time
£2.99

Poor Little Puff. He went to explore the wonders of colourful Dragon Land and got himself lost! He wouldn't mind but he's hungry too! Life is really tough. Being nowt but a little dragon, Puff isn't fierce enough to eat, so he needs help. This is where you come in: guide Little Puff back home so he can have his tea. To do this, four pieces of a special pass must be collected and a toll paid to a nasty dragon who guards the gate to his town.

Cartoon Time (a CodeMasters label) has published heaps of cute games, and Little Puff is a perfect example. Cuddly cartoon characters, excellent animation and a fun story line make a gem of a game. Every screen holds new puzzles and traps for poor Puff to fall into. In Dragon Land hordes of nasty creatures like bees, worms and spiders would like nothing more than to eat sugared Puffs for breakfast!

The graphics are big and colourful with detailed backgrounds and lots of variety. The puzzles are set at just the right difficulty, as long as you don't use the complete map and solution printed last issue!

Playing it takes me back to my days of saving my pennies and buying a game from CRASH mail order. Good arcade adventure games like this used to be seen everywhere. Now they're more scarce. That's why when a game like this comes along you just have to get it. Excellent and full of nostril burning fun.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Fixing a leaky tap in the basement, RICH PELLEY stumbled across a few spooky cheapies clogging up the U-bend. So here they are (damp and slightly mouldy)...

Cartoon Time
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

"If you liked the Dizzy games, you'll love this" remarks the back of the cassette inlay - and I couldn't agree more because this has got to be the biggest Dizzy rip-off since Dizzy itself. Of course, we all know what Dizzy was about since it was on the Cover Tape a few issues back - y'know, the one where you're that little egg chappy roaming about solving puzzles and generally bouncing about all over the shop. Of course, as soon as someone said that they liked it those Codies released another trillion Dizzy games to follow as he went on his travels from place to place.

And I can see the same happening with Little Puff too - 'cos, unfortunately, I (sort of) like it. As the title may suggest, you're Puff (as in Puff the Magic Dragon, I presume) - a large, green, colour-clashing dragon who lives in Dragonland, but who's got a bit lost and just wants to go home to his mum for tea. The puzzles are of the 'pick up and use the correct object at the right time' breed, really a case of the more you play, the further you get, if you narta-mean. It's colourful, it's cute and at a mere three nicker we're talking barg city.