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Elation was not exactly my mood while this game based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen was loading, and a further blow was dealt by the appearance of a rhyme on the screen. It's all too ghastly to repeat, but it does give a brief idea of what the story is all about.

For those of you who don't already know it, I'll outline the plot. You play the role of Gerda, the female half of the supposedly inseparable pair of Gerda and Kay, two frightfully nice kids. A decidedly freaky goblin had a fiendish idea - he made a mirror which made everything look horrible, except things that were already ugly, which it made appealing.

The mirror shatters, and two fragments become lodged in Kay's eye and heart. Kay becomes more obnoxious, and goes out to play with the big boys of the village. Suddenly, in a jolly large blizzards, Queeny appears, grabs Kay, and whisks him off to her pad in the mountains.

As Gerda, your daunting task in the adventure is to rescue your pal from the clutches of this icy dame, even though she may not be all that keen to be rescued! Well, despite being cast as a female, it doesn't sound too bad, does it? And in fact it is quite pleasant to play.

There are some pretty standard puzzles, most of which involve doing 'the proper thing' - i.e. returning a lost purse to its correct owner. A bug of sorts lurks in this area; once you have returned the purse, the owner is perfectly happy to reward you, only to repeat cries of "Oh, now where can it be?" the next time you return!

The game is in two parts, making a total of 64K, and Part Two begins as you make your way towards the Ice Palace.

The Snow Queen probably won't achieve such chart success as a blood and guts adventure, and many gamers will no doubt find the story idea rather repulsive.