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Influenced by the excellent Halls Of The Things, with a dash of The Gauntlet, Mage Rage is a colourful top-down flip screen shooter. The minute sized Gandalf fellow must navigate the maze-like land in his quest to retrieve stolen magical swirls that were pilfered under his watch.

The labyrinthian terrain is full of vicious denizens who continuously spawn from portals. As they are of varied genus, it requires a plethora of different spells to eliminate them. Those spells are scattered throughout the land. The right path isn't obvious either; our hero has to step on arrow-like pressure pads to activate hidden doorways to the other areas. This all results in a frantic shoot and manoeuvre style game where your energy depletes rapidly if you aren’t careful. Care also has to be taken with regards to the spell power that your wizard has – there is only a limited supply.

Graphically, I think the game is gorgeous and I adore the small sprites. Being inspired by the first era of Spectrum games, I couldn't help but smile when I was playing this. It genuinely took me back to my favourite era of my beloved 48K which was host to many original games.

The game runs at a great pace and I love getting lost in the maze. Mr Davies has done my single most loved thing in old school gaming – naming rooms! Oh how I hark back to those days; when I'm the Queen of the world, I will be making it international law for all game rooms to contain names. Titles such as "A Glacial Forest" and "Trolls' Fort Entrance" add an extra layer that you imagine more in your mind’s eye than the game offers. Overall, whilst the action is limited and slightly repetitive, it's great fun while it lasts. One for those who remember gaming prior to 1985.