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Now you might not have thought that any story set in New Zealand would be all sheep and rugby players (ooh, what a disgusting thought!), but Taito had other ideas when they put this cutesy coin-op into arcades early this year.

The star of the show is Kiwi, who looks more like a canary than the national bird of New Zealand, but we'll let that pass. Kiwi led a moderately quiet existence in a zoo, partying the days away with his kiwi mates, until one day a fat and grumpy walrus stuffed the whole gang into a sack and put them in separate cages around the zoo. Luckily, Kiwi managed to wriggle out of the sack and now it's up to him to save his avian chums from life imprisonment.

Gritting his beak, Kiwi dons his natty blue training shoes and takes to the scrolling platform scenery which makes up the zoo. Walrus has released some of the nastier zoo creatures from their cages to guard the kiwis, and most of them are armed and dangerous, so it's finger on the fire button to plug them before they plug you. Doors in the background open to unleash snails, fire-sprites, spear-chucking Maori warriors, flying teddies and even penguins riding on ducks.

Whenever you shoot one of these, a fruit or other bonus drops to the ground, ready to be picked up. Using this method you can equip Kiwi with bombs, speed-ups, extra lives, a shield and a laser gun, which come in very handy.

Kiwi's forte is running and jumping, but there are other ways of getting around. Evolution makes no provision for Kiwi to get off the ground, but if he shoots an airborne beastie, he can steal its mount and fly out of danger. Alternatively, there are hot air balloons to be found amongst the maze of platforms which Kiwi can leap into with the same effect.

Sections of the zoo are underwater, but being the well-equipped bird he is, Kiwi gets out his aqualung and scuba mask and dives in. Although he can't use his bow and arrow underwater, he can bring down nearby nasties by swimming close to the surface and spitting a jet of water at them.

After he's released all the kiwis in a level, Kiwi has to take on an end of level monster. Level one ends with a gigantic ice-covered whale which you have to shoot in the head until it swallows you. You then have to shoot the whale from the inside whilst dodging deadly water droplets.

And that's it - basically, everything in the coin-ops is in the Amiga version of New Zealand Story. The sprites have been copied to the finest detail, even down to the flying goggles on the flying teddies. The backdrops are very reminiscent of the coin-op, featuring crowds of zoo animals, and they all scroll around very smoothly.

The ole sound chips are very cleverly used to recreate the dinky coin-op tunes, and the sound effects are nothing short of excellent. I particularly liked Kiwi's death "neep neep neep neep" sound.

But, as usual, it's the gameplay that clinches it, and New Zealand Story has that in huge quantities. The speed, the variety and the cutesy graphics are an utterly irresistible combination which will keep you glued to the joystick for ages. There are a lot of coin-op conversions coming out this summer, but New Zealand story is bound to be one of the hottest. I say check it out.

A superb game in every respect. Ranks alongside Bubble Bobble and Pac-Mania in the Amiga coin-op conversion stakes.