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We all remember the original Gremlins story where the little devils drank, smoked, watched Snow White, terrorised grannies and generally had a naughty time. Now it's a few years later and little Gizmo has gone back to the old Chinese bloke, Mr. Wing. Not for long though: Mr. Wing's passed away and the large Camp Plaza has been built where his shop used to stand.

'But what happened to poor little Gizmo?' I hear you all shout. He was put in a cage (awww!) and sent to have experiments done on him (boohoo!). That is until a workman accidentally dropped water on the chap's head… Four new Gremlins were born: The New Batch!

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is an arcade adventure, steeped in graphical animation and plenty of levels to clear of pointy-eared vermin. There are now separate Gremlin characters looking and sounding a lot like the seven dwarves. Each have a different way of torturing you - from pogoing on your head to electrocuting your toes! The weapons you can use against them are mainly torches. Not a very dangerous weapon on humans, but deadly to your average Gremlin! You can also collect tomatoes to throw at them (big deal!), extra lives, bonus points and time addition icons.

Visually, Gremlins 2 is excellent. All the characters are perfectly drawn and animated and the backgrounds are packed with colour and detail. At first I thought the game was impossible to play, it just seemed so hard to get anywhere without being massacred by the little b… blighters. But when you've memorised where they appear from and had a taste of what they do, you can soon get further into it all. I got almost to the end, but then I'm a superstar (hem, hem - Ed)! Gremlins 2 - The New Batch is action packed. It can get very frustrating when you keep getting killed in the same places but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

I won't repeat the first words I uttered when I started playing Gremlins 2, suffice to say one of them rhymes with duck. And believe me this game is ducking tough. For many games Billy was swamped by the hordes of nasty little Gremlins that bounce, run and lurk around the screen. The graphics are great, very colourful and fast moving, though sadly it's only the backgrounds that are rainbow-hued: Billy and company are monochrome. If you survive the initial hair-tearing period Gremlins 2 is a great fun!