Previous Next

When the contracts for life are drawn up by the powers that be, I think that there must be a special clause in them for princesses stating that at some stage during their life, they are honour-bound to get themselves kidnapped, thus providing a plentiful supply of quests for would-be heroes and computer games players. The latest victim is called Princess Doxaphin and she has been taken from the Imperial palace Kindon Warriors. The Emperor Cophenix II has entrusted you, Mirdav, has trusted vassal with her rescue. Only your daring and a little bit of help from the magic sword SGRIZAM (I think that they get all these names by reading down a list of proprietary rat poisons) can save her. In other words, all the usual introductory blurb.

The game itself consists of you attempting to move along a corridor, dodging monsters and fighting knights. Snakes, spiders and their ilk must be leapt over. Zombie ducks must be ducked (what else?) and Sgrizam comes into its own as you despatch the warriors. You only have one attempt at each manoeuvre and timing is crucial or one of your three initial lives is lost. There is no scoring as such although there is a clock ticking away in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Mirdav is supposed to be a consummate athlete which makes it surprising that whilst he can leap in the air and hold his jump for several seconds, he can only duck for a millisecond at a time and this proves to be by far the hardest of your movements to perform.

Poor graphics coupled with a poor and boring gameplay make this one a miss, even at a budget price. I never did like princesses anyway.