The difficult, second game. This Egghead sequel expands on the original premise by splitting each level over multiple screens.

As the title implies, you’re on a mission of mercy. A mad professor has locked up Egghead’s four friends and it’s up to you to release them from their captivity. You do this by collecting all the keys on each level before you locate the cage which your friend is in.

Being a platform game, the keys are in all kinds of hard to reach places. There are a few screens where you just look and think 'how the hell am I going to do this?'. For me, this has mainly happened on level two, which has taken a great deal of persistence and patience to complete. But anyway.

As sequels go, EttR has the usual enhancements. The graphics are as charming as ever, perhaps a little more so. There's nary a hint of colour clash (the masking technique used to a high standard here) and there's absolutely no 'what is that meant to be?' feeling.

You have a bit more control over the eggy fellow too; you can now turn in mid-jump. This feat is a necessity for playing EttR and should not go unnoticed. In fact, it should be a standard feature in every 2D platform game. Occasionally Egghead gets a little carried away and jumps twice instead of the once you wanted. I've noticed this quirk on the emulated and original tape version. It could be me, so I'll let this slip.

What I can't let slip is the music. It's a reasonable representation of Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (the 'Can-Can' music) but it's on a loop and doesn't just restrict itself to the control-selection screen. After a while you just hit the mute button as you can't take any more. There's also no discernible sound effects. This is the complete opposite to the first game which had good, if spartan sfx and no in-game music.

There are a few other flaws which have driven me almost insane. Despite the fact that I have generally enjoyed myself whilst playing, EttR still gets drop-kicked straight into the Most Insanely Annoying Awards category.

The biggest one is the restart point. It's the starting point of each level. This means that when you die, you go back to the beginning. If you've been playing any of the levels beyond the first this is a complete pain as you've got to then re-negotiate back to where you last died so you can try and carry on. As you've got a time limit on completing the level, it's also somewhat unfair.

You don't have any leaps of faith but you do have split-second pixel perfect jumps to complete. Which is almost as bad. This shouldn't be confused with straightforward difficulty. There are at least two parts of level two which could be made a fraction easier; this wouldn't have spoilt the challenge yet it would have made the game so much more enjoyable.

To make matters worse, you only have three lives - if you lose any during level one I'd give up and start again. Actually; the 'hidden room' in level three is a bit nasty - nasty because think you have got all the keys and then you realise you haven't. You don't have a massive amount of time left to explore and as level three is essentially two long room on top of each other there doesn't look like there's anywhere else for the keys to be. I only found the hidden room when I viewed the map courtesy of The Tipshop.

The difficulty level doesn't seem to be pitched very well either. Level one is fine; a reasonable challenge. Level two is rock hard and a big step up from the first level. Three is dull; you have to walk through some six or seven screens to the right, climb up some stairs, walk through the same screens but to the left, collect a few keys then do the same thing again. It's tedious. God help you if you lose a life on this level. The final level is more well-paced, befitting a second level rather than a last.

After all that, you think EttR deserves a pitifully low mark and further scathing. But you're wrong. Yes, I find the game Insanely Annoying. It's also fundamentally entertaining; when you work out how to complete a room you get a great deal of satisfaction. I got quite a boost when I finally beat level two. Games in the MIA category shouldn't give you that feeling. Egghead 2 does. This makes the game fit on the 'right' side of a 50% plus score.

So I'm left with a dilemma. I've not found Egghead to the Rescue to be skin-crawlingly hatefully irritating, but it's not far off. I have enjoyed playing the game (an Important Point) but I'm going to give it a lower mark than the original as a punishment as it's annoyed me enough to spend all the time writing about the annoying bits and not so much on how I've enjoyed playing.

If you're a more tolerable person then you'll find EttR better than the original. Technically, as a program, I can't fault it. As a game there are some issues which i just can't overcome. You can have fun playing Egghead and there are some addictive qualities. But as a platform game, pitch this against, say, Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo, and EttR will lose badly.

I'm hoping the Egghead sequels have rectified the annoyances, as I really want to enjoy the next one without fearing for my blood pressure exploding ...

Graphics: 74% Subtle enhancements and improvements over the first game	Sound: 48% The in-game tune is good, just horrifyingly annoying	Overall: 63% Should be as good as Egghead 1, but the annoyances reduce the score considerably
Addictiveness 62% There's enough to keep you playing, but the irritants ensure you won't come back as frequently as you otherwise would have	Playability: 66% There is fun to be had, just not as much as you'd expect