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I had entered the South American rainforest with some trepidation; it's not every day that you search for an Aztec temple. Soon I found it and explored it to my heart's content. That is where the fun really started...

Okay, now you know that Aztec is yet another exploration game. Fortunately, unlike Quo Vadis and its ilk, Aztec is random so there is little point in mapping from one loading to another.

The temple is randomly generated on each load and consists of floors connected by steps. You have to explore in search of the Golden Idol, fighting off monsters and opening treasure chests to find useful objects.

The Temple itself is uninspiring in its design and one room looks much like another. The interest is in the various chests you'll find, the contents of which are vital to your survival and the success of your quest.

To negotiate the eight "storeys" takes skill, and there is a level of difficulty selector to keep you in tight spots. You control a fully (though rather jerkily) animated Indiana Jones-style figure, who can walk/run/shoot/jump and even use dynamite. But the price you pay for this complexity is a heavy load of 21 functions all accessed from the keyboard. And that's no fun when you've got a high-level toughie to deal with.

Sound effects are minimal, but then it must be said that this game was written in 1982. so it's only to be expected.

It will be a while yet before Aztec loses its appeal - the fact that it has survived for almost three years in the cut-throat software market is proof enough of that. But today's C64 owners demand today's hi-tech games. And Aztec is a bit long in the tooth...

If you've got twenty fingers, or very nimble toes, you will probably get on very well with Aztec because the enormous numbr of key controls is ultra-confusing. This contrasts greatly with the straightforward object of finding one golden idol and escaping.

The animation adds a welcome humorous note as you collide into walls and, overall, is of tremendous quality. This can't make up for the fact that there is just too much to think about and control. But then they told me down at the Job Centre that grave-robbing was hard work...

Aztec is a very unusual arcade-adventure. Everything you do and other characters do, is animated. The graphics also have a very mystical quality about them.

I don't know whether I had a bad copy of this game or not, but it crashed at several points. Very frustrating! The control was equally problematic, it's very difficult to remember what keys will get your character to do what. It's not the easiest thing to immediately recall that pressing Z will give you an inventory, and G will make your character crawl!