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I thought up an amazingly witty comment about amnesia for this review, but I've forgotten what it was! The reason for that (attempted) witticism is that you start this game not knowing who or where you are, or why you are there. The object of the game is to find this information,, which makes a change from searching for lost princesses.

Mindshadow is of American origins, indicated not only by the idiosyncratic spelling (like "marvellous") but in the extreme professionalism and good design. Whilst British adventures are often innovative, they are just as often flawed, and forget the needs of the player. But, like many American games, what Mindshadow lacks in innovation, it makes up for in quality. For example, on the tape is a short tutorial - and this is by far the best introduction to adventuring I have *ever* seen. It even guides the player through a mini-adventure complete with its own illustrations describing almost every command you could think of. The game proper is extremely user friendly, with an unusually wide variety of responses.

The graphics are in an unusual style, as you can see from our screenshots, but are above average and varied. They can be slow to build up but this is offset by the facility to jump straight to a location using a string of movement commands. The puzzles are intelligent and logical, and though Mindshadow is nothing stunning it is entertaining and worth looking at; it's good to see some American software on the Spectrum, even at this slightly expensive price.