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Ranarama sees Steve Turner's return to his unique world of magic, spells, runes, potions - and frogs!

The Dragontorc man serves up more of the same but in a far more accessible form. The problems are still there to be solved but in Ranarama they don't bring the game to a halt while you spend a frustrating few hours trying to solve them.

You control Mervyn, a Sorceror's apprentice, who has inadvertently turned himself into a frog while trying to brew a portion to make him, tall, muscular and handsome. Some mistake, eh?

But it has allowed him to escape capture during an invasion by evil warlocks.

The aim of the game is for Mervyn to tackle twelve wizards found on each level of the game, guarded by evil troops scattered around the many rooms. There are eight levels in all. The rooms are viewed from above - Gauntlet-style - but they only become illuminated when you enter them. On average you get around five rooms to a screen.

Succeed in capturing a wizard and you enter a sub-game which allows you to build up your magical spells. Basically this is sorting out the jumbled up words of Ranarama against the clock. It's simple but you always find yourself panicking. Unscramble the jumble and you are rewarded with extra strengths.

The missiles, power and shields you gain are all graded to match the nasties on different levels.

Some of the game features are: Magic Bolts: Eight kinds of bolts of increasing power. Lesser bolts will not kill powerful meanies.

Secret Doors: Not all are obvious. Watch for the enemy walking through walls or tunnels and lead nowhere. You can use a Find spell to find them in any room.

Generators: Various objects generate meanies.

Many Minions: The evil wizards and minions move about intelligently on each dungeon level on their own but will not change levels. There are twelve wizards on each level to find and destroy.

Magical Transfer Points: On the floor can be found magical signs. These can be used to transfer to other levels.

Power Points: You can use these to attack all meanies within the room.

Magical Spell Points: You can cast spells to increase your power on these points.

Clairvoyance Points: These can be used to obtain a map of the current level. Only the places you have been are revealed.

Meanies can be killed by colliding with them but you lose energy in the process.

Energy levels can be loose by collecting spinning energy crystals or by firing up another power spell. When your energy drops low, the frog sparks and flashes.

On the floor to all the rooms are various "glyphs" which are activated by stepping on them and pressing the fire button.

Glyph of Seeing: All rooms explores so far will be shown on a map. If you have the See spell warlocks will be shown in red.

Glyph of Sorcery: Shows your spell status, rune list and allows you to scroll through available spells.

Glyph of Power: Will disappear when used. It activates a random attack spell which is often deadly to all in the room except yourself.

Way Glyph: Will transport you up or down a ley to a different level.

In Ranarama you have a short shoot-'em-up plus lots, lots more.

Great fun, thoroughly absorbing gameplay and very addictive. Turner triumphs again.