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Wow, this game was just pipped to the post for the longest title of the month award by the re-release 'Escape From the Planet Of The Robot Monsters.' However, it is the longest named original title in quite a while. But can we really judge a game by the length of it's name? Matthew Walker probes the mystery.

The lands of the good and righteous are being taken over by the extremely evil Trogan The Diabolical and his horde of nearly as evil minions but no-one can or will do anything about it. It's high time a warlock with some conscience and a better than average sense of direction came along to sort the situation out and, as usual, the lands are not let down. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere the right boyo for the job turns up mumbling magic spells and walking with a swaying sorcerer's gown.

It's Stryker, a warlock with special knowledge of the secrets of bravery and the magic of order. He must fight his way deeper and deeper into the crypt to finally defeat Trogan. Along the way Stryker does battle with a variety of the evil one's sidekicks including hopping mad disembodied sculls and vicious sword swinging skeletons.

Stryker lives in a horizontally scrolling landscape fraught with hazards and obstacles. Carefully avoid them or his life, indicated by a power bar on the bottom left hand side of the screen, will start to ebb away. Do this by jumping and running, both of which the main sprite does well.if a little slowly. He can also hit opponents and pick up spells, score icons and extra power ups, though full scale combat should be avoided in the interest of the long term health of the warlock.

The graphics are colourful but distinguishing objects such as icons and traps can sometimes get you into a bit of a muddle. Response to commands isn't too slow but does, sometimes, give the impression of being rather pneumatic at times it takes a bit of getting used to, during which you're likely to get frustrated. But once you've figured out the sprite's idiosyncratic ways the game will be much more enjoyable.

There are plenty of enemies to battle with and plenty of places to explore in Stryker in The Crypt Of Trogan. Starting out you can go either left or right (left for a limited distance only, but far enough to pick up some scores and icons) and the watchword for the game does seem to be 'look everywhere and try to pick up everything unless it's obviously an enemy or it's screwed to the ground.' Another handy tip is to avoid skeletons from the grave, they're lethal.

Stryker was, doubtless, intended to be a pretty game with a big and almost convincing main sprite and well defined enemy skeletons and skulls, but the graphics do tend to let it down a little, not quite up to Codie usual standard. However this is still a valid sword and sorcery title and if you get bored during the summer software drought then get a copy of this game.

Label: Code Masters Memory: 48K/128K Price: £3.99 Tape Reviewer: Matthew Walker

This isn't the most exciting sword and sorcery title I've seen but does have a certain charm. The playability and graphics are certainly not award winning but the game is still big and challenging and because you're much better off avoiding trouble than trying to kill everyone, Stryker does make a change from all those chop his head off games.