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The Jewel of the Seven Stars is the source of Rasputin's power and he is using it to try and destroy the universe. Playing the part of a Russian Knight called Ivan, you are on a quest to search for the Jewel. Converted from the Spectrum, Rasputin is one of Firebird's hot range of products.

Graphically, the game looks very attractive with rooms being depicted in a series of 3D blocks - Ultimate-style. Moving around though is somewhat more complicated. You can move forward, turn left and right and jump. That in itself wouldn't be too bad if you have time to sit down and work out what to do and where to go (the 3D perspective takes some getting used to) but your task is hampered by the many nasties roaming about the platforms. Should you make contact with one of them, you return to that particular room's starting point. If you miss your step, you don't fall into oblivion, but land on a layer of clouds below and bounce back up again for a suitable cost in your life force.

Before you can find the Jewel, there are objects to be found. These can be identified by their markings (in suitable cyrillic script of course). Gaining these objects helps you in combat with monsters and, if you can defeat them, you gain one of eight spells which will help you overcome Rasputin's powers.

I found Rasputin a very difficult game to get into and a few simple screens to start with would have been appreciated. One thing that keeps you going back for more though is the music. This sounds like an electric Balalaika, getting faster and faster and urging your onwards in your quest or to your doom, this is my favourite Rob Hubbard tune to date and certainly helped overcome my initial apprehension with this game.