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A shadow of despair hangs over Pacifia, the Land Of Peace. Its king, Edelred, is about to die, poisoned by the evil wizard Zandor who wants to rule supreme. Enter Edred The Brave, son of Edelred and a warrior to be reckoned with. Only he can save both King and Kingdom from certain oppression by destroying Zandor - but not before acquiring an antidote.

You control Edred in his journey through four levels of differing gameplay styles before a confrontation with Zandor (seen here on the title screen). The journey back home's no picnic either...

Castle Warrior is slick and polished, with music to stir the soul and graphics to astound and amaze. It looks like Dephine was attempting to produce a more interactive and subsequently playable incarnation of the laser disc coin-op Dragon's Lair. Full marks for trying but the end result is, unfortunately, lacking. There are only six sections, which wouldn't be such a problem if each had more depth and playability - but they haven't. Section One doesn't last very long, which actually isn't so bad as the action is slow-paced and not varied enough to enthral. The spear-throwing antics of Section Two are even more limited and uninteresting, and while the dodging and deflecting involved in Level Three is somehow reminiscent of the first section, your reflexes are put to the test so the going is more enjoyable.

And so it goes on (although not for long). Most of us yearn for a more interactive form of 'movie', but maybe this sort of game should be left to the memory-abundant laser disc systems. Or maybe we should make software more like games and less like movies.

Anyone familiar with Delphine's debut Bio Challenge will know that the team has the talent to minimise the differences between different versions. Castle Warrior is no exception - well, apart from the fact that it comes on two disks and costs 19.99. It should be out now.

The news for MS-DOSers is... well, this: Castle Warrior won't be appearing on IBM PCs and its many many compatibles. Sorry 'bout that, but the PC isn't such a big noise on the other side of the Channel.