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Rufus is a green, pot-bellied creature of debatable gender. He lives in the enchanted land of Atwicky, a pleasant place indeed. Pleasant, that is, until all its inhabitants were captured and imprisoned by a couple of very unpleasant witches. Rufus was the only one who evaded the gruesome twosome and now must save his incarcerated friends by finding and unlocking the cages strewn about the game's eight levels. The witches, aware that Rufus is still at (very) large, anticipated his daring rescue attempt and left dozens of nasty demons, vicious Vikings and mad monks patrolling Atwicky's many platforms. To complete a level, open all the cages then make your way to the exit.

Being a bit of a porker, Rufus isn't exactly built for daring rescue attempts and would have an impossible task on his hands were it not for the various objects and spells he happens across on his travels. The most important item he must find is the (single) key which opens the cages on each level. Other goodies include air spells which allow our intrepid hero to breathe underwater and a selection of weapons for dealing with the demons. Most can de despatched quite easily with any weapon at hand, but some are more powerful than others. For instance, Vikings can only be killed by the axe or with fire. The weapons are (from least to most powerful) spear, zap (!?), axe and fire. Beware though - the baddies are only out of action temporarily! If any of the nasties get the better of ol' Rufus, magic mushrooms collected along the way will top up his energy. Very useful.

With its cutesy main sprite and simple platform leaping antics, Magic Rufus could easily have been a fairly jolly affair, able to hold its head at least at medium height among the current crop of original budget titles. Unfortunately, it's got more flaws than an episode of Neighbours. Take character movement - man, is it lethargic?! Rufus lumbers around like he's just eaten twelve fried horses. You'd hardly guess he was being pursued by denizens of the underworld.

To make matters worse, his 'leaps' are in fact little more than half-hearted skips making moving between platforms ridiculously tricky. One false move and you find yourself plummering right to the bottom of the chasm you just spent ten minutes climbing out of. As he can't change direction in mid-air, to leap onto a platform Rufus must be standing a reasonable distance away. This makes climbing steps infuriatingly tricky. Jump onto step, turn around, walk to edge of it, turn back around, jump onto next step, and so on.

Graphics hardly change at all in general appearance from level to level, making progress tremendously unrewarding. You'd at least expect a change of scenery after slogging through each drabness. In short, I wouldn't recommend Magic Rufus to anyone I might want a favour off in the future! 42%

In a world full of wizards and witches, the last person you'd expect to carry out heroics is Rufus. He's such an unsightly fellow. And predictably, the broad-bellied one's good deeds don't make for a good platformer, no siree!

Several factors help dig its grave, the main culprit being the controls. It's so unresponsive. Having to make constant adjustments before jumping a gap of one millimetre is unbelievable.

The game needs a complete reconstruction. Every level is graphically identical apart from the mix of two clashing colours which churns the stomach on sight, and as for the difficulty level, woah there! Talk about aggravating.

It's terribly worn and jaded, as if nobody bothered to playtest the thing at all. Liberating an encaged populous has never been such a laborious toll. Miss it and you'll be highly delighted.

Presentation 55% Poor intro, minimal animation.

Graphics 59% OK at first glance, but little variation.

Sound 40% Annoying ditty that soon grates.

Hookability 58% Glitches quickly become all too apparent.

Lastability 30% Tedious, tiresome, trumpet and brine.

Overall 36%