Ibix The Viking is Minerva's latest, and arguably greatest, arcade adventure. It uses mode 15, with Atelier graphics and digitized sound, and so is obviously very impressive in both sight and sound. Ibix himself is a short, cute kind of a barbarian, with a big nose and a helmet at least three sizes too big. He does battle against a startling array of enemies, including green cricket balls, Roman soldiers and snails.

The object of the game is to finish all eight levels and so rescue the Princess. You have to collect treasure along the way because, as the manual says, "princesses are rather expensive to keep". Two sets of screens, Easy and Hard, are supplied: Easy is loaded automatically, and is reasonably straightforward for the first five levels, to get you used to the controls. After that, things start to get tougher and you need a combination of arcade skill and puzzle solving in order to complete them.

The game itself is slightly reminiscent of Hoverbod, and some of the graphics appear rather similar. However, it is a definite improvement and actually has a comprehensive set of instructions - something that is lacking in many other Minerva games such as Thundermonk. It is very enjoyable and the sound is excellent. There is an interesting effect created by the use of a simple plink-plonk tune in the background, with digitised snatches of pop songs used as the sound effects. For example, it plays "...bites the dust..." when you kill an enemy. Another interesting thing to listen out for is the cannibalistic scream you hear when you lose a life. The lack of a loading screen is disappointing but the game more than makes up for it.

Also supplied is a very good screen and sprite designer. You don't realise, until you have a look at it, that so many different sprites are involved. One rather surprising omission from the editor is Ibix himself. This must be due to the large number of sprites that have to be defined for him. Not least of which are the ones needed to make his helmet rotate whenever you pause. One very useful point is that you can not only also redefine its behaviour. This is done using the Enemy and Object A.C.E.s (Action Code Editors).

All in all, this is an excellent package, and strongly recommended if you like this type of game.