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Take a healthy helping of Ghosts 'N Goblins, add the essence of Rastan Saga and Thundercats, stir vigorously, add a dollop of programming talent and simmer for a few months before serving frozen. The result: Beyond The Ice Palace.

Is this a royal dish to set before the public? Is it mouth-wateringly tempting, juice-loosing and saliva-stimulating? Will it leave you asking: "More, please"?

Well, first impressions are that this is a tough old dish, fiendishly tough on the Amstrad, less on on the Spectrum.

And Elite have catered for this by giving you nine lives.

The plot is pure clap-trap, all about goblins and ghosts, and evil creatures. The evil forces have been burning down the forests, destroying homes and generally making life very miserable for all concerned.

A single person has been chosen to put everything back in order, banish evil and make sure everything is hunky-dory.

So it's off to explore the Rastan Saga-ish screens, slay the Ghosts 'N Goblins-type creatures. And you control the heroine or hero - I think it's heroine but you never can be really sure these days - with the long, flowing blonde hair, cut in the very best Thundercats style.

There are weapons to choose from all the route, stones and gems to collect. If things are getting tough you can twice summon the Spirit of the Woods to wipe out the screen baddies.

The weapons you can pick from are knives, sword and something which appears not to have a name but is very effective.

You start off by leaping down a hole, facing left. And here's where your problems start. When you hit the bottom you're attacked from the right. It's very difficult to turn round in time to fend them off. So it's one life gone very quickly.

And from then it's hard slog. The creatures some at you thick and fast, flying bat - like things, axe-throwing zombies and other nasties that materialise from nowhere to wreak havoc.

One of the problems in coping with the onslaught is that, when moving right you're almost at the edge of the screen. Creatures appear singly or in clusters so suddenly that it's hard to cope.