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This must be the first computer comic spin-off to actually capture the feel of the character it's based on. Nemesis The Warlock - not to be confused with Konami Nemesis or The Edge's Warlock - breathes fresh life into the ancient platforms and ladders format. How? By adding a gruesomely amusing hack, slash and shoot-'em-up elements that's how!

It may not have spectacular graphics - the Spectrum version suffers a bit from colour clash problems - but it is immensely playable and horribly addictive. But, you ask, what do you have to do? Read on...

To finish once and for all the evil regime of Torquemada, Grand Master of Termight, Nemesis must fight his way to the heart of Torquemada's empire.

To protect himself, Torguemada sends out attack waves of his demented followers, the Terminators. To complete each screen Nemesis must first kill enough Terminators to weaken their resolve. Then, and only then, can he search for the exit to the next screen.

The exit from one screen to another can be anywhere leading off the screen (up, down, left or right) and only trial and error will reveal its location.

Nemesis need not rely only on his sword Excessus to kill his enemies. If he manages to find any ammunition hidden on the screen he can use his gun until he runs out of bullets.

Nemesis has the power, just once to spit fiery acid each screen. This will kill everything it touches!

As the bodies of dead Terminators pile up, Nemesis may find it helpful to climb up or walk across them. In fact, this may often prove essential if a screen is to be completed.

The longer it takes for Nemesis to leave a screen the greater will Torguemada's influence become on it.

As Torquemada's face becomes more visible at the bottom of the screen, he will direct his twisted mind to the Terminators' corpses who will grotesquely burst into life as scythe-wielding zombies. Zombies are more difficult to kill than Terminators, but once dead, they stay dead.

Watch out for the ghostly swords of dead Terminators.

The display at the bottom of the screen shows:

1. A panel where Torquemada's face will gradually appear as his influence grows 2. The number of Terminators left to kill before Nemesis can search for the way out to the next screen 3. The number of bullets in his gun 4. The heart of Nemesis. As he weakens, Torquemada's grip will tighten. If the life blood is squeezed out of it Nemesis dies!!

As we've already said, you have to explore each screen to find the exit after you've wiped out enough Terminators. The body count can be horrendous on some screens!

Beware of too much contact with your enemies even after you've killed enough to escape.

And remember that hitting the fire button once draws Nemesis' gun a second hit actually fires it. Move and Nemesis puts his gun away and to fire you have to go through the whole thing again.

Run out of ammo and Nemesis uses his evil sword Excessus.

Sounds on the C64 version are excellent - both this version and the Speccy have sounds by none other than C&VG Golden Joystick award winner Rob Hubbard.

Don't collect all the ammo at once of the C64 version - you only get twelve shots even if you collect every bit of ammo on screen. So empty your gun and then go for more ammo.

And be careful not to kill a Terminator over the ammo. If his body is on top of the ammo you won't be able to pick it up.

The Spectrum and C64 animation is excellent - although the backgrounds on both versions lack imagination. They are simply blank. Still, that's a small point put against the total playability of the game.

The only other criticism is that there's not an accurate energy level indicator. The "heart being squeezed" is nicely gory but not accurate enough. A winner from Martech. Check it out!