The main character in Sprong is some sort of demented Aussie jumping around on a pogostick. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.

Anyway, you set off to find the fabled Lost Golden Pogostick, spurred on by the wailing of Danny Boy. While I like to think I have an open mind on musical matters, I was glad to be able to turn this particular cacophony off.

You are given five lives to begin with and there are chances to win extra lives. Each screen has to be completed inside a time limit and there are 50 screens to pogo through.

Moving from left to right your progress may be checked by a number of obstacles and hazards. These include lava flows, raging fires, laser beams, acid rain, bomb-dropping helicopters, meteors and one or two others.

These can be dodged by careful timing of your movement or avoided by hopping on to and across platforms, conveniently strewn about the place. The platforms can be of the rock-steady or distinctly temporary variety.

You hop gently along, moving left or right. Pressing the fire button increases the height and length of the jump. The springing movement is good and bouncy and adds to the difficulty when trying to assess particularly tricky jumps.

Should you lose your last life 38 screens into the game, you don't have to go back to the beginning next time round. On restarting you can choose to begin at screen 10, 20, 30 or 40 depending on how far you reached. Even as an absolute beginner, you can start on any screen between 0 and 9.

The graphics are bright and cheerful, though blocky and rather uninspired. The raging fires are little more than glowing embers, the background scenery could have come from Legoland and, as for the lava flows, well I've seen more animation in our pumice stone on bath night.

There's nothing new under the sun, so goes an old adage - and Sprong by Red Rat Software certainly does nothing to try to disprove it. On the other hand, Sprong is well put together and is reasonably challenging.