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Once upon a time in ancient Japan lived a lowly tax inspector's assistant. He was a quiet and humble man - until he witnessed the brutal killing of his master by the evil Demon King.

Vowing revenge, he donned his dashing Samurai gear and tried to follow the murderer, only to discover that the Demon had teleported far into the future. However, with the help of the powerful village wizard this problem was surmounted... and our hero was transported to 2323 AD.

On arrival it soon becomes apparent that the Demon's presence has corrupted the local countryside, as his foul apparitions (solid in body but nightmarish in nature) have taken up residence and will stop at nothing until our hero is a charred pile of broken bones.

Which is where you become involved in this epic story. Mr Samurai (Sam to his friends) is as agile as an excited bunny rabbit on dextrine. Climbing walls, lump-kicking assailants and opening chests containing valuable artifacts are all actions performed with a fluidity rarely seen on an 8-bit computer.

When Sam kills an enemy, its spirit leaves its body and can be absorbed by our hero, adding to his magical energy (depicted in bar form at the bottom right-hand area of the screen). When this bar reaches half-way, he's awarded a magical sword to use in place of hand-to-hand combat. This saves a great deal of wear and tear on his fists and feet (it looks pretty, too) and gives him greater reach in the killing of all things nasty.

More magic is required to get past certain obstacles. After collecting the necessary items, you need to summon the wizard (if you've enough magical energy) to help you through. For example, to traverse a huge ravine you need several logs so the wizard can build a bridge. This is followed by a confrontation with one of the huge superbaddies, ranging from a fire-spitting dragon to a massive mechanical piston.

First Samurai is simply one of the best games I've played. The sheer volume of landscape to explore makes it fantastic in the lastability stakes: the inevitable multi-load is well thought out, allowing you to stay on the last load rather than re-loading from the start again. The inclusion of a password system also scores Brownie points - at last, programmers who acknowledge how frustrating it is having to slog through the same levels time after time.

If I had to make a comparison with any other game, I'd say Turrican is probably the closest, but First Samurai even beats that. I mean, how often do you get an 8-bit game with fight sequences on top of a moving train, scenery moving at a blur behind the combat, with the action moving at an over more frenetic pace? The answer is, you don't. So long to the Sega Master System, NES and Game Boy - you've met your match in the form of a computer now approaching its tenth birthday: a computer that was supposed to die following the console rush. Long live the C64!

At last, this arcade epic hits the streets. I remember seeing it several months ago. Then, the superbly animated graphics grabbed me by the throat, the *huge* landscapes knocked me flat on my back and the incredibly compulsive action kicked me into submission.

Sadly, the death of a certain Mr. Maxwell plunged the Mirrorsoft/Imageworks sofware house into turmoil. It was soon snapped up by Acclaim, but for some reason First Samurai has finally surfaced on the Ubi Soft label. So, has it lost some of that initial impact? No way, Jose!

If anything it seems even more playable, having proved its lastability beyond any doubt. As in Turrican, the main attraction is the flexibility to the perfectly animated hero. He jumps, punches, kicks, crouches, hacks with his sword (brilliant blur-line speed effect) and even climbs up walls. The huge play area contains many surprises, magical puzzles, power-ups, destructible walls, and impressive superbaddies (the Demon himself has to be seen to be believed!). Exploration is aided by the teleports which eliminate repetitive backtracking. But that's only the beginning: later levels add the variety of running along a moving train and hitching a lift on elevators in the skyscraper.

In short, not only is this one of the technically best games ever, it's also one of the most thoughtfully designed, the icing on the cake being the friendly multi-load (several huge levels per load!) and password system. Utterly, utterly brilliant!

Presentation 95%
Excellent multi-load and password system

Graphics 97%
Phil? Are you sure this isn't an Amiga game?

Sound 88%
Good slash and bash noises, fine title tune

Hookability 96%
I'm suffering "cold turkey" right now!

Lastability 97%
Many long levels make for many months of fun

Overall 97%