This 1987 sequel to the pioneering Saboteur is so much bigger in scope than its predecessor, but retains much of what made it good in the first place.

The main character – a stealthy ninja, on an infiltration mission – is actually the sister of the previous character, out on mission to avenge his death. So you’re controlling a woman inside that ninja outfit, which is great in my opinion, and Saboteur 2 was one of the first videogames to feature a female protagonist in the main role.

In Saboteur 2 there are nine separate missions that take place in the same gigantic location, with the difficulty level increasing as you progress. The basic aim is the same as the previous game: sneak around a guarded complex, looking for pieces of punched tape (yes: punched tape…), while at the same time avoiding guards and their pet pumas! No – not dogs this time – but pumas. And they do actually look like pumas, which is pretty cool.

There are also other incidental puzzles to solve along the way, such as having to disable electric fences that are blocking the way, and also a number of rather exciting motorbike sequences that do add some much-needed variation to the game.

The introductory sequence – of the ninja arriving by hang glider, then dropping down to begin the game – is iconic in ZX Spectrum history.

Note: the loading screen actually shows a map of the entire game. Or, at least: the entire complex that you’re exploring, and it is very useful if you want to play the game seriously. A lot of games-players didn’t even realise it was a map of the game at the time! Looking back: this was both a unique and clever thing to do – put the game map on-screen during loading – so players could study it while they waited for loading to finish (which could take more than five minutes).

More: Saboteur II: Avenging Angel on Wikipedia