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The once jolly land of Greyfell now lies solemn in the shadow of the evil sorcerer Mauron. Having stolen the 'Orb of Life' and hidden it in his fortress stronghold, Mauron holds sway over the kingdom - gloom and despondency becoming its inhabitants constant companions.

Norman the cat, fuelled by the local tavern's sale, sets forth to find the Orb of Life, overthrow Mauron's rule and restore peace and happiness to the land.

Our feline hero is aided in his task by other creatures of the forest who hold no love for the sorcerer's ways: Potbellius the bear landlord, Offalorien the shifty spy, Willy the pig policeman, Blotto the drunken rabbit and Hitormis the wise owl wizard. When encountering these beasts, Norman is given clues to the location of the orb, which are vital if he is to complete his mission.

The way through Mauron's domain is littered with danger, for there are many of the sorcerer's followers within the forest who try to stop Norman. These include rats, wolves, dragons and killer tomatoes to name but a few. All of these are dangerous to Norman but he is a tough cat, and can fight back by casting one of his three spells, or throwing punches.

Norman also has the ability to pick up and use objects, unlock doors and explore his surroundings - by means of an icon-driven menu system, accessed by holding down the Fire button and moving the joystick down.

Contact with Mauron's minions depletes Norman's stamina, although it can be replenished by walking into flowers found around Greyfell. Should Norman's stamina be reduced to zero, he dies and Greyfell remains forever in the clutches of the malodorous Mauron.

An admirable attempt at a 3D forced perspective arcade adventure, but unfortunately it's far, far too slow to be worth playing. The cat takes ages to walk across the screen and the joystick response is unbelievably slow.

It also takes ages to travel from one bland location to another, and the action runs at a snail's pace. Just to completely ruin the enjoyment, the icon system is also unwieldy. In the end, frustration gives way to boredom...

All of a sudden, every other arcade adventure in the world gets a boost in the popularity stakes, as compared to Greyfell, anything looks good. The 'game' is slow, unwieldy and boring. The graphics, although quite smart, give little impression of depth and only serve as a hindrance.

On several occasions, I scurried behind an object, only to be killed on contact by some hidden meanie. The final kick in the teeth is the music, which is absolute dross, consisting of 80 endlessly repeated notes.

I was going to tell you to play with the music turned off, but better still, just don't play it at all.

I'm amazed by Greyfell. A 'fast moving arcade adventure' it announces on the inlay. Well folks this simply isn't true.

If there's one thing crucial to an addictive game it's speed. The player must always be kept glued to the screen. Sadly, Greyfell allows the player's attention to wander. The perspective isn't very convincing and is often more of a hindrance than an attraction.

The main presentation of the play area is very bold, but the options are badly scattered around the bottom of the screen, and I found the menu method very awkward and slow to use.

The main screen graphics are well drawn and have the same quality animation, but as with most games of this type on the Commodore it lacks addictiveness and playability.

Presentation 55%
Poor instructions, and an awkward control method used for both the main character and menu sheet.

Graphics 48%
Unconvincing monochromatic isometric 3D with cute, slow-moving characters.

Sound 9%
Pathetic attempt at a tune and weak spot effects.

Hookability 33%
Slowness of movement and apparent inability to actually do anything causes frustration from the outset.

Lastability 21%
Large playing area to explore, but there's hardly any urge to do so.

Value For Money 22%
At ten pounds, the only great impact this has is on the pocket.

Overall 30%
A poor 3D arcade adventure, heavily tarnished by its slow speed and illogical and infrequent problems.