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I'm taking a bit of a chance here by awarding Imogen the sought-after honour of "Game of the Month"; despite our pleadings, Micro Power has only dispatched a demo version of the game but your mail already indicates that the final release version holds the promise that the demo suggests.

Now Micro Power have been a little quiet recently, reduced to selling off their old software at increasingly discount prices and making some nice money from mail order. Last non-compilation release was the rather over-ambitious Dr. Who And The Mines Of Terror - an arcade game so "mega" in concept that it had to appear (expensively) on ROM which, rather strangely, was then not large enough to contain all the code, thus ensuring that ROM plus tape/disc has not become the de facto games format.

However, Micro Power's reputation is such that I suspect many games players have been awaiting Imogen with great impatience - an arcade adventure from the folk who knew how to deliver (Remember the compulsive Castle Quest?).

The word is - it was worth the wait! Written by Michael St. Aubyn (a new name to me), it opens out some new angles on a traditional arcade adventure theme and offers some very classy graphics as it does it.

The theme is not that exciting - a great wizard, Imogen, is imprisoned after the strain of battle has turned him a little crazed. When he is fully recovered, he will be able to solve the puzzles that will reveal the sixteen pieces of a spell that will free him. The game is thus in sixteen sections, each of which can be skipped when the relevant password is learnt.

To help discover the password, Imogen can take on the persona of one of three different characters. As a wizard you can hold and use objects found; as a money you can climb ropes and trees; and as a cat you can leap rocks and chasms - these can be swapped between at any point of the game via an icon display at the top of the screen.

The icon display also allows you to save and load game positions, choose sound or quiet, enter passwords, quit, choose a colour or mono display and learn passwords of sections that you have entered. The display is toggled using the cursor keys and space bars, movement by Z/X/RETURN; thus simplifying play action by discarding the usual notion of handfuls of keys to remember and use.

As I said, I have only seen a demo of the game but it is a superior piece of work. The graphics are impressive, the change between characters a superb idea and the puzzles are the kind that drive you to distraction until you see the simple and obvious solution. Once some basics are mastered, the game is a delight - for instance, near the start position there is an impossible leap required to move through a hole in a wall; lateral thinking is required to see that by climbing a rope, leaping across the screen and catching another rope that is attached to a balloon, you can then drift down the screen until letting go and moving sideways at just the right moment to enter the hole.

Of course, I may have to reconsider my view when I've seen the full game but for now I would heartily recommend this - not only is it very pleasant to see Micro Power back in the world of new releases but it is even nicer to see an example of a 'classic' arcade adventure of the standard and type of Castle Quest, Citadel or Wizadore.

Very playable, very enjoyable, very much a Game of the Month!

Dave Reeder