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"Super-heroing" has never been an easy task, risking life and limb to save the Earth, Universe - whatever. In this case it's the evil forces of Kerilis IX which are wreaking havoc throughout the land and, as usual, it's up to you, an intergalatic mega hero, to save the day. The force, who call themselves the Boolalgrops, have invaded an alien planet and are causing vast amounts of wanton destruction. The game starts with you abandoned on that same alien planet with a veritable armoury of swords in your possession. However, merely killing the aliens won't win the war fully, there will still be their eminent leader to deal with - the mighty Alien Presence.

A quest has been devised that will lead to the total annihilation of the leader. Your first task is to retrieve the seven Daggers of Power which will open the portal into the very heart of this strange world. Each dagger must be collected individually from the far left hand side of the scrolling playing area and then carefully carried to the portal to the far right hand side of the playing area.

Once you have collected your first dagger, the aliens come out in force to try and stop you, the first foul batch taking the form of canisters which slowly float from the bottom to the top of the screen. However, if you approach them, and fail to blast them in time, they home in on you and unless some nifty joystick handling is employed you are doomed to failure. Luckily, you have been given six reincarnation spells to play with.

Having put one dagger through the portal you must then head back over hazardous terrain to the collection point. On some occasions you will fly behind buildings making it near impossible to keep track of your actions. There are also some swamps which drown you if you land on them. Having deposited all seven daggers in the mystical portal it will open and, at last, you can fly through.

In the second part of the game you need to locate five pieces of garlic and five crosses which have been scattered over the land. Played on a wrap-round scrolling playing area your sensors must be carefully monitored as the garlic and crosses are invisible. On finding an object the border changes colour and a code flashes up to inform you of your discovery. Once all ten objects have been collected you are transported to the mighty Alien Presence.

His guardians are indestructible, but with a good shot it is just possible to kill him so his evil wrath may never return again.

I didn't quite know what to make of this to begin with, so I persevered with some alien blasting and portal opening and now I know that this game has serious problems which render it nearly unplayable.

Main fault number one is that the tasks are so laborious, once you've returned one dagger then you have to go repeat the same action six more times. The next task isn't much fun either, in fact don't touch this with a barge pole - it's one to be well avoided.

Ugh! What a dull and dire game! The first bit is really dull, and having to do it time and time again nearly sent me to sleep - it's difficult and frustrating too, just adding to the urge to switch off the C64.

The graphics and sound are both poor and the program isn't worth the £2.99 price tag.

The first level of this game is very similar to Tony Crowther's Gryphon, but it's nowhere near as good. In fact, Hoodoo Voodoo is poor as a whole. It's also very hard, and if it wasn't for the Game Killer lying conveniently to hand I wouldn't have managed to get onto the second level to find out just how boring the whole game is.

There's not much else to say about this game other than I would have second thoughts about buying it.

Presentation 55%
Fairly straightforward.

Graphics 42%
Lacking in quality and colour.

Sound 66%
Good title screen tune but little else.

Hookability 35%
Laborious and uninteresting from the outset.

Lastability 21%
Difficult and challenging, but not very absorbing or varied.

Value For Money 33%
Cheap, but three quid is still too much for so little.

Overall 27%
Yet another big disappointment from Bug Byte.