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Forced from his village and dispossessed of his powers by evil, an old wizard is left to wander in the wilds, rejected and despised. But slowly, so slowly, wizardry begins to trickle once more through his narrowing veins, filling him a with new-found confidence. Returning to his home village he vows to restore his lost powers to their full vigour and take revenge upon the evil force that vanquished him.

The village is now inhabited by loathsome birds and malevolent dwarfish entities, hungry for the wizard's four lives.

The red energy spheres that occasionally appear can be collected to replenish these reserves, but imprudent wizardly wanderings into the chasms, de-energising areas, and water pits that rupture the roads quickly deplete them again as the wizard struggles for survival.

Our be-cloaked warlock can protect his ancient bones with his basic energy spell: this magic destroys some creatures, but others are merely stung into temporary retreat.

The wizard progresses through his village world using a series of teleporters. Objects that he comes across can add to his magical capabilities or increase his powers of attack, and with these new strengths the wizard can battle his way through the possessed village, an onscreen indicator showing how much of this strange world he has completed.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: very ornate but a bit jerky
Sound: good
Options: definable keys

'Outcast is addictive and fun. Perhaps it's because I never get very far with each life that I want another go; perhaps it's the smooth graphics, moving at the right pace; perhaps it 's even the easy-to-understand gameplay; whatever it is, I find Outcast very worthwhile.'

'At first sight it seems Outcast might be something a bit special - the colourful graphics are well-designed and with the animated trees create an attractive atmosphere. But the problem is the lack of things to do. The enemies have no intelligence (do they ever!); they just float around waiting to be pushed off the screen with an 'arrow'. And it's a pity about the animation of the eponymous character - he looks really stupid when flying through the air!'

'Outcast is, as the title suggests, fit only to be cast out from the ranks of popular software. It's quite easy to play, but I found it difficult to amass any significant score. The onscreen animation - stars, branches of trees - is quite pretty, but frustratingly you can play for ages without getting anywhere. There just isn't enough content in Outcast.'