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Hiro's not having a good time of it. Having defeated Havoc in Switchblade, he was looking forward to a quiet retirement with the aforementioned blade securely ensconced on the mantelpiece. Then Havoc pops up again and, with a tired sigh, Hiro's forced to get after him, pension book in hand.

As you might guess from the screenshots, this is a platform game played over six levels. The overall aim is to reach Havoc and do him in, but most of the time you're battling his minor minions and trying to find a route to the next level, which is never easy.

You begin with a knife, which may sound weedy but is actually the most powerful weapon you can have. However, it is only useful for combat at close quarters, so it's worthwhile searching out the other weapons that can be found strategically stashed - inevitably in life-threatening places. These include a laser, a flamethrower and the aptly-named Super Homing Missile.

Each level includes the now almost legendary end-of-stage greeblie, but these look positively weedy compared to some specimens seen in recent games such as R-Type 2.

The graphics are distinctly average, though that's not to say there's anything wrong with them. The moderate-sized sprites move smoothly and each is recognisable; the backgrounds do their job without interfering (though there are a couple of nice touches, such as King Kong waving from a skyscraper in the distance) and it all looks the part. Sound effects, as usual, have been taken from The Atari ST Stock SFX library, and are best forgotten.

Surprisingly, Switchblade 2 is a very enjoyable game. This is surprising because (a) Switchblade was dull as ditchwater than usual, (b) platform games aren't exactly at the cutting edge of gameplay, (c) there's really nothing here you haven't seen many times before in a hundred other platform games and (d) see (a). Switchblade 2 is not too difficult and, with a few false starts, level two at least is within your reach, if not the end of the game. It's perfect for when you really can't be bothered to get your cerebral tissue wrapped round anything more taxing than shooting robots. Hiro probably never liked watching daytime TV anyway.