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Italian software house Genias have apparently just stumbled across Ghosts 'N Goblins with less-than-honourable intentions. The result is Dragon's Kingdom, a game 'inspired' by Ghouls 'N Goblins' bad features as much as its good ones.

Needless to say, the scenario claims never to have heard of Sir Arthur and Princess Huss - no, their hero is the brave knight Darius and unusually for an Italian his quest doesn't involve running away or chasing women. Nope, Darius is actually a brave fellow who has no plans to switch sides midway through this battle.

His beloved land - Thalax - has been plunged into darkness by the unleashing of evil demons from the swamp of Soggoth. The King of the Demons, long confined in the swamp by a magical spell, is in a fine old rage and transforms himself into a Griffin to devastate Thalax so thoroughly that there isn't a single friendly face to be seen; every square inch is crammed with villains and monsters. Anyone sensible would take the hint and go visit the relations, but Darius is given a misson by King Duncan to defeat the evil king - and what is Duncan doing himself, hmm?

So that's your plotline and very uninteresting it is too. The actual game is a fairly simple mix of platform-leaping action and plenty of rapid-firing. In standard Ghouls 'N Ghosts there are other weapons though: an axe flies in an arc which can be useful or disastrous, depending on the circumstances. Like that game, you can only have one weapon at a time, but this game seems to force you to accept new weapons - it's impossible to avoid the axe, for example. This is a shame as one of the best features of Ghouls 'N Ghosts was its tactical element.

One of the worst elements was the awkward jumping system: you need a little space to make a diagonal leap, you can't leap up and then change direction. This can be frustrating, especially if your joystick isn't top-notch, but Dragon's copies it for some perverse reason. More welcome is the 'armour system' - if you get hit once you lose your armour, get hit again and you go back to the restart point. Dragon's doesn't actually bother with any armour graphics, but the system is the same, with you needing two hits to die completely. This is vital, since the reset points are well spaced out and getting through without losing a single life would be difficult.

There are three levels in all to the game, shown by an overall map which appears every time you die. The levels are far from massive - they're crammed into a single load and after a single day's play we've already got to the last level, after which the game wraps around with more baddies. Graphics are rather dated, Ghosts 'N Goblins was better of course, here the main sprite is particularly poor and although volcanic action under a bridge is both familiar and nice, there's nothing new or particularly exciting.

Dragon's would make an acceptable budget game, or compilation filler, but as a full-price release it's exceptionally dated. Even in 1986, Dragons would've been mediocre; today, it's something of a curiosity.

I'm intrigued as to how Linel justify this game as full-price with a mere three short levels - only made difficult by random enemy appearances and the inclusion of pointless Ghosts 'N Goblins-style 'features' like the useless throwing axe and awkward main character jump.

There's a measure of addictivity in the game simply because there's some satisfaction in completing a game in days - as long as you haven't bought the thing at £11.

Presentation 34%
Poor loading screen, but a single load, high-score table and a progress map shows how far you've got when you die.

Graphics 41%
Primitive main sprite, some okay enemy sprites and background graphics, but generally dated.

Sound 49%
Reasonable tunes, one for each level, with dull spot FX.

Hookability 39%
Irritating to begin with.

Lastability 35%
Only three short levels, subsequently repeated with different enemies.

Overall 38%
A somewhat playable, but simplistic and small game.