Elderly games have a habit of rearing their wrinkly faces after spending years in a care home eating mushy peas and watching whimsical performances by school children.

Kid Icarus is 25 years old which, in gaming terms, makes him eligible for at least a bus pass, large corduroy trousers and glasses on a lanyard.

But you wouldn't know it here - this is the 3DS so the wrinkles are ironed flat and forced into the third dimension for as long as it takes you not to throw up.

It's a Space Harrier-style behind-the-buttocks-view flying jobbie, and also a running-jumping-bloody-camera's-in-the-way-can't-see-squat type of affair.

The two variances swap in equal measure as our bewinged young hero rids the world of its demonic plague with the assistance of a lovely goddess and a steroid-pumped human wielding an impossibly over-sized sword.

Flying and dodging is attached to the wee thumb pad, killing with L2 and aiming via the stylus. It makes for some extremely busy digits, and after half an hour of dicing devils, you'd rather dip your hands in an acid-covered meat-grinder than carry on.

Those with smaller paws (children or howler monkeys, perhaps) will find such dexterous gymnastics less painful, but Keith The Strapping Builder should probably avoid it.

That said, Master Icarus's return is still a belter of a title, just not one for telethon-style length of play.