Amstrad Action
1st October 1985
The Mastertronic miracle continues with a great little arcade adventure containing 25 screens, two large scrolling mazes a host of objects and some puzzling tasks. You play a little magic knight whose role in all this is to either please a pnncess with a birthday gift or make an awful lot of readies, depending on how chivalrous he's feeling.
The action takes place in the Castle of Spriteland where lots of odd-looking sprites wander around trying to sap your magical strength. The display shows either a platform screen or part of a maze, along with info on your cash, value of objects carried strength and number of lives. You can walk around both screens and maze and operate a rather difficult jump control on the platform screens.
Dotted around the whole playing area are little white triangles that signify objects. You can carry five objects at a time which are obtained and used with single key commands for get, trade, drop and examine. Each object has a cash value and can be converted into the real thing at a trader's, where you can also buy things. Two objects sometimes combine to make a third which, along with the trading, will allow you to either make plenty of cash or actually find the birthday present.
There are lots of horrible creatures shaped like squid, hamburgers and eels that will drain your strength on contact. The problem with this is that, when you lose a life, no visible sign is given and it is all too easy to get very close to ultimate death without even realising it.
Getting between screens and platforms can be difficult since to jump you have to use diagonals along with accurate positioning of the knight. This can lead to lots of frustrated attempts as you bang against ceilings or fall short with a jump against a wall. This is compounded by the fact that you may well be attacked while all this is going on.
A catchy little tune plays throughout the game and the sprites are pretty good until they start overlapping. For £1.99, you're getting a whole lot of game.
Good News
1. Large playing area. 2. Some puzzling object combinations. 3. Catchy little tune. 4. Good graphics. 5. Take a long while to crack.
Bad News
1. Bad jumping control. 2. Overlapping graphics flicker.
Second Opinion
It's certainly good value - look no further for a bargain-basement arcade adventure - although the character you control has no real individuality and there's little originality in the game. But graphics and sound are pretty good. At the price, there's nothing to rival it.
Screenshots
