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What would you do if the world as you knew it was a lie? Well... nothing, because how would you know? But what if someone came along and told you that the world was a lie? Would you believe them? Would you take the red pill and forget everything that you thought you knew? Oh hang on... no, that's Neo in The Matrix. Sorry, we meant would you trust a strange old man and go on a quest for a fabled sword called the Daikatana? If you were Hiro Miyamoto you would! For Hiro is the hero (presumably no pun intended) of this latest title to hit the Game Boy Color, from the pen of the legendary games-meister John Romero... welcome to Daikatana.

The story goes thus... Many years ago a powerful sword called the Daikatana was created which had the power to warp time. After it had been used to defeat some rather nasty people it was hurled into a volcano to prevent the wrong people getting their hands upon it at a later date... a move which proved remarkably useless because an evil individual called Kage Mishima managed to recover it and set about changing history to make himself supreme ruler of the world (as you do). This is the story Hiro is told, and before you can say, "But wait, isn't time travel rather complicated?" he's off on an eon-spanning quest through time, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home. Er... no, that's not right either. That was Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap. Um... suffice to say that Hiro's got his work cut out if he wants to find the sword, save the girl (there's always a girl) and bring peace and normality back to the Universe. Phew!

Daikatana on the Game Boy Color is visually very reminiscent of Zelda, with the action viewed through a top-down two-dimensional pseudo-3D perspective that at times can be a little confusing. For instance, it's not always clear what is part of the wall and what is the floor until you try to walk over it.

The game is incredibly enjoyable for all that. It's packed with tons of cut-scenes that further the plot and drop you clues and there are a surprising number of fairly tricky puzzles. It's also remarkably easy to get killed in this game - an event which results in an instant 'Game Over' - but luckily you can save at any point to one of the three save slots on the cart.

Daikatana is a very involving game with some nice characters and a complex plot. The only real criticism is with the language in the game. A lot of the dialogue has not been translated correctly from the Japanese and, as a result, if the time travel plot wasn't confusing enough before, now half the time the characters end up speaking total rubbish. That said, it does often lend an obviously unintentional moment of humour to the whole thing, which can't be bad! All in all, this is a very impressive game - and it's actually better than the N64 version!

Originally a Japanese game, Daikatana has been translated into English (otherwise very few people in the UK would have been able to understand it, see?).

However, it does appear that the translation contract went to the lowest bidder because some of the featured dialogue is ridiculously bad!

On the plus side, some of it is just downright funny. Try a few of these lines on for size:

"I have to convey it anticipating you as a real samurai."

"Usagi finished Daikatana at last enough to get satisfied with its power."

"How cold here! We'll be frozen to death here if we stay here for a very minute!"

"You come to yourself, Mikiko?"

"You should already got Daikatana?"

"Who's it?"

"What you mean Mikiko?"

"It's extraordinary actually same two objects exist at same time' n place."

The disastrous badly translated dialogue is just the tip of the iceberg. The real problem wth Daikatana is that it's just dull! RPGs these days need to grab the attention with bright colours and original ideas, but this is the worst in plodding pointless gameplay... with people just going on about honour and swords and collecting keys.

There are far more fun things to do than play this... like washing up or doing your homework!

Graphics 80%
Nice backgrounds.

Sound 100%
Fairly atmospheric.

Playability 80%
Actually makes you think!

Lastability 80%
Will keep you going a while.

Overall 92%
Top RPG-esque adventure action!