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It is the distant future, when governments are things of the past and world power is held by Mega Corporations which are in turn under the thumb of the Focus Fellowship.

Focus have perfected the power to place demons in the dreams of anyone who dares threaten their authority. The most evil of the dream demons, Ocular, has been implanted into the dreams of three renegade Astral Scientists or ASMEN, imprisoning their minds in separate locations. Two are held in separate blocks of the offices of Megabuck Inc, but the third is captive in the Ocular's own world, the Wyrm Planetoid.

The player takes control of a fourth ASMAN who has put himself to sleep to explore the dream worlds where his captive colleagues are kept. He begins his quest in the scrolling corridors of Megabuck Inc which are patrolled by Ocular's lackies and Demi-Demons all trying to end the ASMAN's dream by depleting his dream energy. When all the ASMAN's dream energy is gone, he wakes up, and the game is over.

To protect himself the ASMAN can destroy his assailants with a laser, leaving behind coloured Psy-Globes. Blue Psy-Globes gradually restore the captured ASMAN's psyche, represented by the gradual building up of a picture at the foot of the screen. Green globes allow the player to enter a dream hopper to take him to the next dreamscape, while red globes give access to wall safes from which lost energy can be restored.

The grey globe, opens the doors to a lift connecting two floors of each level of the Megabuck building. To make things even more difficult, the corridors of Megabuck are blocked in strategic places by force fields, which open for a limited time if the ASMAN picks up two passes from the floor.

Recovering the minds of the first two ASMEN from Megabuck Inc allows the player to progress via dream hoppers to the Wyrm Planetoid where the last scientist is held by Ocular. After rescuing the ASMAN, the player takes off in a flying sloop in which his final attack on Ocular is launched. Repeatedly blasting the demon's multiple eyes destroys its evil dream incarnation and sends it back to its shadowy realm.

Good grief! I don't think I can remember US Gold releasing a game that wasn't a license of some kind or other, and looking at Dream Warrior it's pretty easy to see why not. Graphically and sonically the game isn't too bad, though the unchanging techno-wallpaper backdrops of the first couple of levels do have a retarding effect on interest level.

However, the real yawner is the action, which undergoes very few changes during the whole game, and even at the end there's precious little excitement to be gleaned from destroying Ocular. If only there was more to the game, US Gold could have had something reasonable on their hands, but instead all they have on their hands is something slightly whiffy. Buy it only after an extensive preliminary test.

On first loading up Dream Warrior, the impression was one of overall competence. Unfortunately, this belied the more durable feeling of mediocrity which took root after I actually took hold of the joystick and played the game. One major annoyance was picking up the the force-field passes right next to the forcefields, which only open for long enough if you first collect the furthest pass, then the one nearest the barrier. The slightest delay blocks the corridor and replaces the passes, so the player is stuck next to the field, and running back picks up the passes in the wrong order, screwing up the timing element and leaving the corridor impassable.

Apart from this excitement, only three levels of bland run-left-run-right-blast action soon had me in the land of dreams.

Presentation 51%
An unremarkable tale screen and on-screen presentation.

Graphics 65%
Well designed and animated sprites, but the backdrops are pretty invariant.

Sound 58%
Above average tunes and spot FX.

Hookability 48%
Gameplay is repetitive, right from the start - and it's a little too easy to get into.

Lastability 31%
Only three levels of boring action means that interest is short-lived.

Overall 49%
A pretty snooze-worthy arcade adventure which doesn't represent good value for money.