Atic Atac - Fast and Furious

The great oak door slams shut behind you and the lock clicks home. Soon the creatures of the night will rise, and then you're for it...

So begins Atic Atac, from Ultimate.

You are trapped in a five storey castle, and your only hope of escape is to find the golden key.

Before the game starts, you must decide what type of character you want your hero to be. The choice is between a knight, a serf, and a wizard. Each is armed with a different type of weapon and moves at a different speed. They also have their own specific type of secret passage.

The serf can vanish through the large beer barrels and the wizard can dive through what appears to be a piano.

Access between the five levels is via stairs which must be climbed, and trapdoors which can be fallen through.

Locating the golden key is difficult enough, but when you have to avoid every evil thing under the sun, you've got problems.

The bad guys materialise constantly in every room and come in a variety of guises.

The majority of these can be despatched with one hit from your weapon.

Unfortunately, the real meanies, such as skeletons and mummies, cannot be killed.

Bump into one of these super-spooks and you are likely to be minus one hero.

Though each character carries a different weapon, the method of use is always the same. Each time the weapon is used it richochcts backwards and forwards along its line of fire.

I would recommend that you keep your finger on the fire button at all times - it's the only way to keep the numbers of spooks to a reasonable level.

The game is a race against time - the time remaining indicated by a picture of a cooked chicken. As time passes the chicken is slowly devoured, revealing more of the skeleton.

By consuming food and drink, which can be found around the castle, the chicken can be re-built.

Atic Atac is fast, furious, and fun - and at last Ultimate have provided a joystick option to one of their games.

Jon Revis