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Grab thy sword and get into 'eth' mode - jumpeth, kicketh, etc - and you can leapeth into the land of Camelot Warriors.

You're whisked away from the 20th Century and dumped back in the mythical past where Arfur reigned over his clapped out kingdom. A trek to the castle, armed with your trusty blade. Excamembert (sic) is the only way in which you'll find the solution to your timeslip trauma and get back to the future.

First, however you must plough through three worlds of eye-clawing owls, flesh-eating spiders, killer fish and deadly plants to find four elements of the 20th Century which dropped through time with you. They are upsetting the balance of nature and, to keep Camelot tidy, you must find them and return them to their correct place.

The game's four worlds include Forest, Lake, Caves and Castle. Each land is inter-linked with others. For instance, you can jump from a grassy glade in the forest into the almost total darkness of the caves - no attribute clash there. The forest harbours an evil druid who'll turn you into a toad, and a race of giant owls who's wings batter you to death at the moment you enter the game.

Be ready with your sword and you can slice them in two.

So far so good, unfortunately, the game makes use of a weird joystick and keyboard control system. You'd think that to swing the sword you would press the fire button and to jump you'd move the joystick up against the wings of death or some such your instinct to hit that fire button will prove fatal.

Did I mention jumping? You'll have to do a lot of that. The caves contain purple piggies which bare no resemblance to the menacing boars they're supposed to be and two-legged go stoppers that creep up behind you and hack away at your calves. As they approach you jump or you'll lose yet another of your five lives.

Once you've despatched the monsters you can get on with finding the four elements which are hardly recognisable from the descriptive runes printed on the cassette inlay. I can report, however, that one of them is a light bulb and another a radio perhaps.

Each element has its guardian, taken from the world of mythology. When you've found an element hand it over to him - he knows what to do with it.

The Forest is ruled by Aznaht, a master druid who has command of all animals and who can turn humans into beasts. Azornic is a powerful dragon lord who's fiery breath feeds the cavern's central heating system. The lake's ruler, on the other hand, relies on Greek mythology for his existence. He's Kindo, brother of Neptune, and his domain extends over all things watery.

Camelot Warriors isn't a complex game but its mixed bag of mythology and science, mawkish monsters and neatly animated graphics appealed to the puzzler in me.

Ariolasoft has tried to mix arcade animation with strategy. If it's not completely successful it's because of its lack of complexity.

Camelot Warriors is for the arcader who's not afraid of gentle riddles. But it probably isn't one for die-hard strategists.

Label: Ariolasoft Author: Dinamic Price: £8.95 Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: John Gilbert

****

A myth-orientated game featuring Britain for a change. Gentle riddles and faery graphics. Not a heavyweight, though.