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Star of many a solo role-playing book, Lone Wolf is a fearsome warrior. Now, sole-surviving Kai Master of Sommerlund, he has pledged to return the Kai to their former glory by recovering seven magical Lorestones.

Rumour has it one of these is hidden in the towering fortress, Kazan-Gor, the stronghold of Gorazh the evil sorcerer. This rather unpleasant chap was getting a bit too big for hisboots, so The Elder Magi constructed an energy field around the whole fortress to trap him. Obviously, he wasn't too chuffed so he vowed to keep the Lorestone there forever. To foil intruders, he constructed many traps including The Mirror Of Death which apparently reflects an evil entity that takes on the appearance of its opponent.

Well, it did. At the start of the game, Lone Wolf has just smashed it with his sword (flippin' vandal) and is about to suffer some bad luck. Seven unearthly demons have arisen, each armed with a shard from the mirror. It's up to Lone Wolf to explore the fortress's many towers to find and defeat each of the demons in one-on-one, hack 'n slash combat.

The disappointing Lone Wolf sprite can leap onto static and moving platforms and climb up ladders. Hazards include missile-spitting Gargoyles and vicious Krow birds which drain Wolfy's energy. Worse still, if Lone Wolf is climbing a ladder at the time, he is knocked off and can fall several screens - very annoying.

To aid his quest, at the start of the game our hero can choose four from eight magical Kai skills. Activated via the function keys, these are limited and so much be used sparingly. Though a good idea, some of these powers make combat ridiculously easy. For instance, by using the wolf apparition (which looks like a harmless dog), you can simply hack your paralysed opponent at leisure until he's dead! So you never really need to use the various combat moves, especially the defensive, blocking ones.

Graphically the game is no less disappointing. The large, sluggish sprites lack any detail and the simple backgrounds are no better. All told, Lone Wolf is a bit of a howler.

Lone Wolf gets off to a poor start with some very disappointing graphics, the backgrounds are dull and character animation limited.

It looks like a game from the days when people tried to do big, coin-op style graphics... but failed! Sadly, gameplay is similarly disappointing. For the first few goes, exploring a largish flick-screen castle is interesting; timing how to get past fire-spitting gargoyles, dodging birds and fighting the occasional warrior.

Unfortunately there's not much more to it than that; the various mystical powers aren't that sophisticated.

Presentation 53%
Free solo role-playing book, choice of Kai skills, music/FX, animation status panel.

Graphics 34%
Blobby sprites on Spectrumesque backdrops.

Sound 48%
Okay 'Ride Of The Valkyries' tune, sparse FX.

Hookability 35%
Initially exploration is fairly involving. Unfortunately, control response is sluggish and combat simplistic.

Lastability 27%
The more you explore, the more the lack of variety becomes apparent in gameplay and graphics.

Overall 29%
Freebie role-playing book plays better than this archaic program.