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All was well in the land of Torot - until an evil Queen managed to trick a dragon into parting with the all-powerful Firestone. She then used its magical powers to cut a curse on the land, spreading fire and calling up ghostly apparitions to put fear into the poor inhabitants of Torot.

After a few weeks of frightening the populous, the Queen issued an ultimatum: she would return the Firestone to the dragon if the four legendary Charms of Eternal Youth were delivered to her. A brave knight, Sir Galahad, volunteered himself for the task and sallied forth in search of the Charms.

Firelord is a flick-screen arcade adventure in which you play Sir Galahad on his quest to find the four Charms scattered about Torot. As he wanders the streets, ghostly apparitions appear and attack, draining the gallant hero's energy. To protect himself, Sir Galahad must find an enchanted crystal which gives him the ability to throw fireballs.

Galahad's energy is displayed in numeric form at the top of the screen, and a life is lost when this energy level reaches zero. Fortunately, lost energy can be replenished by collecting items of food, including sacks of corn and bushels of wheat.

Dotted throughout the land are houses occupied by peasants, herbalists, witches, wizards, knights, wise old men, and bishops. On entering a house the screen display changes to show the occupant's face, which looks left and right. Objects in the house are shown below, along with whatever Galahad is carrying. Items can be bartered to acquire information, extra energy, Charms or weapons. A cursor is used to select items and the owner decides whether the offer is profitable or not.

If Galahad is feeling lucky, he can steal objects by moving the cursor to the 'steal' icon at the bottom of the screen. However, if the occupant witnesses the theft, Galahad is put on trial and the screen shows a cursor rapidly moving between the words 'innocent' and 'guilty'. Pressing the fire button stops the cursor, and a life is lost if the cursor stops on guilty. This ordeal has to be endured three times before Galahad is free to continue with his task. But if he fails to deliver the four Charms of Eternal Youth to the ageing Queen, Torot is damned forever!

This is a typical maze arcade adventure - there's plenty to explore and work out, but there's just nothing new to get excited about.

The graphics are alright, and the sound is quite nice, but all in all it's just another in a long, long line of mediocre arcade adventures. If you don't like this sort of game, or are just getting bored with playing the same type of thing over and over again, give it a miss.

Firelord is great fun to play - but unfortunately the appeal doesn't last long enough to merit the nine quid asking price. The game starts well with a very atmospheric tune, and the graphics look as though a lot of time has been taken on them - the characters are very detailed and well animated.

The action is immediate which makes Firelord very easy to get in to. Going into the houses and trading is good fun to start with, but the appeal soon wears off. Firelord looks like a good game on the outside, but it lacks original and inspiring substance.

I think Firelord is one of the most beautiful games ever to grace the Commodore.

Right from the title screen, the atmosphere hits you straight in the face - the music suits it perfectly and sets you up for what is a great exploration game. It's very tempting to disregard Firelord as just another 'run-around' game, but there's a lot more to it - like the trading screens and the added excitement of the possibility of theft!

Firelord is a very consistent game - nothing appears slack, and with a free Hewson git thrown in for good measure it shouldn't be missed.

Presentation 84%
Novel instructions and polished in-game presentation.

Graphics 71%
Pleasant backdrops, but ineptly drawn and animated sprites.

Sound 83%
Beautiful, atmospheric title screen tune. Bland spot FX.

Hookability 73%
Straightforward objective, but tainted by the feeling of deja vu.

Lastability 66%
Over five hundred locations to explore, but not enough variety or original gameplay to enthral to any great length of time.

Value For Money 67%
Nothing outstanding on offer for the price.

Overall 68%
A playable but fairly run-of-the-mill arcade adventure.