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You'd think, what with Popeye being 63 this year, he'd be far too old to be trotting around avoiding falling masonry, rotten rope bridges, bombs and fireballs. Surely he should be sitting at home with his pipe and slippers, reading The Daily Barnacle or something? Yeah, but you reckoned without the sailor-man's hunger for excitement and his strangely pathological addiction to spinach.

You've also forgotten the fact that bruiser-boy Brutus has swiped Olive again and, of course, it's down to poor old Popeye to do the decent thing and swipe her back.

All of the usual characters are hanging around, ready either to help or hinder Popeye's progress. Wimpy, he of the high cholesterol, can be placated with a hamburger or six. Swee' Pea is an overall pain in the hindquarters, crawling cutely, but precariously, around the edges of the platforms and girders. Then there's Brutus, who won't hesitate to keep hold of his spindly detainee, Olive, by fighting dirty with a huge wooden club.

Meanwhile, Popeye jumps around the different scenes defusing bombs, collecting spinach for strength and hamburgers for Wimpy, while avoiding the various falling, rolling and disintegrating hazards. Sound familiar? At least it's a good excuse to sing "Popeye The Sailor Man".

1. Dull and repetitive platform game, with only a minor level of playability.

Popeye 2 is a capably presented but otherwise simplistic game which makes no attempt to transcend the limitations of its well-thumbed genre. It contains one or two irritating random elements and has nothing original or eye-catching to keep you returning for more.