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Just when you thought you were safe from Gauntlet clones... Ah, well, that's software. Gothik is the usual guff, evil wizard, tyrannical rule, evil minions roaming the castle... You play the hero who must rescue the good wizard - who's rather gone to pieces all over the place. Finding the Wiz's bits and putting him back together will return light and enlightenment to all and sundry.

The player takes the part of big butch Olaf or tricky little Olga who has more magic but less brawn. In the best traditions of these things, you get a plan view of corridors and chambers. There are four movement directions and flick scrolling. There are various objects to be picked up which fall into two main categories: potions and items. The items are food which replenishes life energy, gold can be converted into food, magic strength replenishes your ability to use magic, quivers replenish your arrow stocks and flames replenish your stock of firestorms.

By pressing the Space bar, you bring up the status screen. This is a neat way of keeping the main action screen clear of all the usual clutter showing you which things you have collected and shows the five ratings affected by the collection of the items I just mentioned. It also shows progress through the game and also allows you to select weapons and magic items.

There are three weapons: arrows, lightning bolts and fireballs. Arrows simply fire in the direction you are facing. Depending on the monster, copping a few of these will soon have it pushing up the daisies. Lightning bolts use a little magic strength and keep bouncing around until they find their targets. Fireballs are impressive. On the status screen, you can vary there strength - the more powerful, the most magic strength they use. The effect when they hit is quite dramatic, it can blow out walls and torch bracken.

There are five magic relics which can be picked up. Once picked up, they can be selected and have various strange effects. The ring of invisibility is self-explanatory; Chameleon makes the warrior look like an object - fine except that some creatures will try and pick you up.

Doppleganger makes you look like a creature - trouble is, some creatures dislike other creatures as much as they dislike you. Grim Reaper kills creatures and Medusa's Head makes creatures stop in their tracks. So how does this little lot measure up to Gauntlet clones past? To be sure, a lot has been packed in here, and there are plenty of good ideas and touches. It lacks the addictive pace of Gauntlet, there's no feeling of racing the clock.

If you've already got Dandy, Druid or Gauntlet, you should probably give this a miss.