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Will you please welcome back the amazing Magic Knight in his latest smash adventure Spellbound!

The main character of this first in a new mid-price range of games from Mastertronic is called Magic - and the game will cast its spell over you too.

Old Magic Knight first appeared in Finders Keepers. Now his creator David Jones has set Magic a new task.

Gimbal the Wizard has been trying out some very old spells to make his rice pudding taste nicer.

Unfortunately, the scribes who translated the spell from ancient English made some tiny errors - and when Gimbal tried to make his rice pudding nicer he was blasted through time to the Castle of Karn.

Seven other unfortunate characters were sucked into the castle with Gimbal - including Florin the Dwarf and Thor who wishes he had a hammer.

Magic Knight gets the call to help his old friend and zaps off to the mysterious castle to save Gimbal and the seven other characters. The main feature of the game is a novel technique which David calls Windimation. What that means is that windows or panels full of options can be called up on the screen, overlaying the main graphics area and each other.

These windows are full of adventure-style menu options - like examine, read, pick up, drop, cast spell, etc - which you select using the keyboard or joystick. The Magic Knight then does what you tell him. You also move Magic about the castle using the controls as in more conventional arcade adventures.

Each of the seven characters has his or her own personality. And Magic must take care of them - keep them fed and happy. If he doesn't, the game will soon be over. You can examine the characters to check out their status - and maybe discover if there's something they really want. Like Thor and his hammer. If you help them, the characters will help you.

The game is not over when the wizard is free. Then you have to help the seven other unfortunates get back to their own parts of the world.

The graphics are neat, the sound good and gameplay is quite simply magic! You'll soon get the hang of using the Windimation menu system!

Arcade games players and adventurers will enjoy Spellbound. It's tremendous value at just £2.99 and deserves to be a smash.