For those of you who haven't played Impossible Mission before, the plot revolves around a genius professor gone bad, Elvin Atombender, and his ruthless desire to suddenly see the world engulfed in its own nuclear weapons. Having infiltrated his underground lair, you must gain access to Elvin's control room and stop the countdown. The room's password has been split into 36 different pieces and hidden in furniture about the lift-infested complex (don't ask); your task is to find the parts and reassemble the passcode to save the day. This would be quite simple if it was not for the patrolling laser-spitting robots on most floors guarding the furniture, to which end you must avoid either by stealth, sneaky cunning or leaping over them with the infamous somersault. Or if you really get frustrated, using a snooze password at one of the computer terminals.

As someone with hundreds, nay thousands of hours play on the original, this new version was always going to be subject to intense scrutiny. The player is given the choice of three different graphical skins: original (the C64 graphics), new and mixture which is the old sprites on the new backgrounds. The new version also allows the choice between male, female and robot agent. Regardless of the selections made the game still plays the same which is a small issue in itself; even the "original" game uses the newly programmed engine rather than be an emulation of the C64 version.

Needless to say this is far from tragedy, just slightly disappointing. This new version of Impossible Mission plays a very good game, it is no mere doppelganger attempting to masquerade as a good piece of software. It is only that when you start with a classic, the number of minor complaints just takes the sheen off the proceedings. Though trying to avoid a litany here, they include the black ball missing in one room; the code rooms handing out only droid snoozes when they should alternate with lift resets; a tweak in the time it takes to search; and there doesn't appear to be multiple sets of puzzle pieces (instead relying on the same set of 36 every game). Quite frankly though only complete fanatics of the original will actually spot many of the small differences between new and old.

It should be stressed here again that this new version (at least the DS incarnation being examined) retains the essence, challenge and addiction to complete of the original, which is probably the most important achievement to note. If it didn't feel like Impossible Mission, then there would be no compulsion to continue playing it. All the previous tricks, tactics and skills can be used in exactly the same way to exactly the same effect, and it's wonderful to have the game in your hand, leaping about all over the screen like it's 1984 again, then cursing royally when you screw a jump up or that droid you thought was docile turns out to be a right git.

It's akin to rediscovering that warm, fuzzy jumper that's been lurking at the bottom of the drawer for ages, an elegant mindslip back to the days of nuclear tension although many of us playing the game back then probably had no idea of its relevance to the world's problems. Something reassuringly familiar and happy, that can't help but invoke a smile as this new version delivers everything positive that your memory grimly tried to hang on and remember from days of yore.

There is perhaps one marmite-like change to proceedings. The droid AI certainly mimics the original and actually has a few new routines thrown in that are more challenging to deal with. There's nothing like an extra test of skill, and one that is actually welcomed. The problem comes when you start to notice the droids changing behaviour mid-screen, something the original never did. As a result, you can and will get frazzled more often than before. Once this is assimilated and considered, play is more cautious and being done over occurs less often.

Utilising the features of the DS also has tick marks in the plus and minus columns, though thankfully mostly the former. The status screen is permanently visible in the lower half, highly useful to take a glance at what rooms have been searched and how many passwords are left. This is also where the manipulation of the puzzle pieces occurs, and at last after so long it is brilliant to execute this section in a fluid, easy-to-use manner that anyone can figure out. Conversely though someone saw fit to make accessing the room terminals touch screen controlled as well, when having it remain as D-pad and button would have been so much simpler and better.

Overall Impossible Mission does most things right and a few things wrong. Despite its quality it won't set the world on fire like it did back in the Eighties, but it's a poignant and subtle reminder of how games used to be written and how wonderfully brilliant games back then could be. The fact that it is a far better reimagining of an original than many other recent titles and the touch screen addition for the puzzle section are reasons enough for purchase. Here's hoping the future line-up of releases is at least as successful.