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Step forward those brave in heart and mind to take on a crusade against evil, oppression and the forces of darkness. Your quest is to destroy the sacred skull, but in your path lie many challenges of skill and strength. There are six stages to this graphic adventure and all of them present varying threats to the budding storm warrior.

The first task is to deflect an energy sphere past a guardian, using your flashing light lance. The sphere glows white when struck and has to reach the light barriers above the leaping guardian for you to progress to the next stage. The guardian can shoot energy bolts when the sphere touches the floor and will kill you if you are in contact with it.

Moving up the light curtain that appears will take you to the Bridge of Eternity where you must fight a barbarian. These are very difficult to kill and must be struck under the arm when they raise their lance to strike. In this stage and the next two, you cannot die but the loss of a life will return your score to zero and leave you with only one life. The light carpet obtained on the bridge takes you the Island of Doom through flocks of storm birds who try to carry you off.

Striking downwards kills the birds but being carried away three times loses a life. Once on the island you descend the Shaft of Darkness where bats, demons and boulders try to slow you down and costs you lives.

The next stage is the most testing with a multi-screen cavern to get through in which scorpions, barbarians and energy clouds bar your way in a platform game scenario. If you can survive this you have the hardest task to face.

In a weightless arena you have to use your lance to bounce yourself off the walls to strike at the skull in the centre of the screen. It will defend itself...

There is lots of original thought in this game and the ability to progress through many stages even though you may be losing lives means it is playable as well as challenging.

We have here - amazingly - a new concept, and I'm all for original games. Storm Warrior does indeed occur in a storm, and the realistic forks of lightning and rumbles of thunder really add atmosphere to the game.

The figure and opposing nasties are all well animated and, when you finally lose all your lives, the green skull really jumps out at you from the TV.

The music on the game can become monotonous, but the sound of your swords clashing as you fight for your life while storm rages around you, is great.

Playability is a very important factor and this game, once mastered, can be fun. However, some people could get frustrated during swordplay as this part of the game is particularly difficult.

This one has a really different feel to it. Having to use a sword means the gameplay is very unusual - a refreshing change from hammering fire buttons, although there's no shortage of fast action.

There aren't as many different screens as some recent releases, but the ones there are are all very different. I don't think anyone will get bored with this one quickly.

Swordplay is the thing to get the hang of in this game, otherwise you will be hacked into a crumpled heap under a rain of hefty blows.

The different stages provide real variety as you progress through the game. Once you have got the hang of killing your duelling opponent it is possible to see most of the game and then develop your skills.