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Sitting on the bus, heading home, you sleepily conclude that life in Aquatania is good. At least, it's been good until recently - but now luck seems to be running out for the small community and its inhabitants. Slowly, menacingly, a feeling of bad fortune has settled over Aquatania. This new gloom hasn't made much impact on you yet, but it will... as soon as you get off the bus.

Approaching your front gate, you are suddenly visited by a representative of the Department of Guardians. He has been sent to tell you why Aquatania is losing its luck - and that you have been chosen to do something about it.

A group of mischievous witches have been plotting behind the scenes to subvert society and change the fortunes of the land, the Guardian explains. Continuing, he tells you that to combat these evil enterprises you must find five special charms and a broken magic bracelet.

Once all these have been located, the bracelet can be reassembled and together with the charms, used to combat the power of the witches and return good fortune to the land.

Jinxter is full of characters you can communicate with, including a megalomaniac gardener, a trigger-happy postmistress and a none-too-intelligent postman called Poor Bloody Lebling - presumably a reference to Infocom programmer David (Zork, Sorcerer) Lebling!

But none of these Aquatanians, or even the many dangers that are to be found in Jinxter, should bother the player too much - you can't die. This may at first take the thrill out of the adventure, but as its style becomes familiar, the player finds it works very well, allowing you to get the most enjoyment out of Jinxter without too much caution.

Unfortunately, disk access is horrifically slow. Waiting as long as 40 seconds for a reply is common, and no matter how good an adventure is, that's quite a drawback.

The graphics are detailed and colourful (although slow to load), and some objects in them can be manipulated in minor ways even when their presence isn't mentioned in the text description.

The prose itself is positively dripping with atmosphere, and often amusing.

Jinxter is a large game with a multitude of tasks to attempt, a very impressive parser and an unusual plot. It's a must for all disk-drive-owning adventurers, though the disk-access time is extreme and contributes to the low interaction percentage.