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Long ago there was a superior race of beings who held the secret of time travel. Helias, the King of Belloth, was the master of the gates to the past and future, and on his death his son Fair Storm became guardian - with a problem! Evil wizard Red Sabbath kidnapped his true love to trap Fair Storm and get his hands on the keys to the four time gates.

Red Sabbath has split himself into four clones, one for each time zone. Armed with a sword, Fair Storm must travel the four zones and kill each Red Sabbath to collect a magical amulet. The time zones are New York-Present Day, The Future, Pre-History and The Mystical - all full of dangerous adversaries: clear the time lines, defeat Red Sabbath and save the girl!

On first glance Knight Forte is graphically impressive, the sprites and backgrounds nicely drawn. But when the game starts moving forget it: even for a seasoned beat- 'em-up veteran the creatures are all too tough to kill, and the scrolling is as jerky as anything. As with Dr Doom's Revenge and Wild Streets reviewed last month, pretty graphics are only half the game, playability counts for a hell of a lot.

MARK ... 60%

'Knight Force is one of those games that looks fantastic, has great presentation but is a waste of time when it comes to playability. I thought I was in for a real treat when I loaded it up: the graphics looked out world. The actual game is a simple beat 'em up. The sprites are nicely detailed, as are the backgrounds, but it's the old problem of the two together in monochrome. Character movement is not as good as it could be, the animation very jerky. Getting past the first enemy is also a problem: no matter how hard I try I can't win. Sound effects are just the standard arcade explosion when a nasty little bird or something squelches into your head (yuk!). Knight Force is a big flop. I was expecting a brilliant game and got this: a classic case of nice graphics, shame about the game!'