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This is an odd program. It describes itself as a fun spelling/pattern recognition game. You have to pick the letters which spell a given three or four letter word from the ice surrounding the Snow Queen's palace. The spelling part is trivial, as the words are printed on the screen for you, but spotting the letters among the jumble of black and whtie squares which represent the ice is rather trickier.

The concept is good, and once I got the hang of it I found the game entertaining, though I have doubts about its educational value. It is too difficult to be played by children young enough to need practice in letter recognition.

The weakest points are the clumsy method used for controlling the cursor, and the poor graphics and sound effects. After each word is completed you have to sit through a sequence of dull graphics screens - geometrical patterns drawn slowly in several different colours. As the program is written in BASIC I felt very tempted to delete the lines which produce these.

It's an interesting idea marred by confused objectives and poor presentation.

M.N.