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Virgin unveil the first game in its proposed 'Fables and Fiends' series. Simon Byron packs his knapsack and clean undies in readiness for a long and serious trek around the world of Kyrandia

Many years ago, the inhabitants of the island of Hyrandia made a pact with Nature (like you do) to care and protect the green and pleasant land. The Kyragem, a massive jewel which drew all the magic in the kingdom to its core, stood as a constant reminder of the deal and was left in the hands of the Royal Family. These mystical properties made the precious gem an object of immense power and an obvious target for anybody wishing to seize control of the island.

One such person was Malcolm, the madly evil jester to the Royal Court of Kyrandia. One dark night he murdered both the King and Queen and seized the Kyragem, leaving Kyrandia defenceless against the nutter's machinations. Fortunately, Kallak, the chief of the Mystics and father of the slain Queen, quickly rustled up a magical force-field which imprisoned Malcolm inside the castle's boundaries, thus allowing the rest of Kyrandia to forget about his evil deeds and return to normality.

At the point we join the story, the magical powers in the land have dwindled drastically and the shield keeping Malcolm boarded up in the castle is nothing short of useless. Without warning the evil jester breaks free and immediately begins seeking his twisted revenge. Kyrandia is certainly in trouble, that's for sure.

Brandon, Kallak's grandson, has been chosen to fight mad Malcolm in an effort to reclaim the Kyragem, save the land and dispose of the crazy clown. A graphic adventure in the Monkey Island style, you must take control of Brandon and guide him through the many traps, mysteries, puzzles and delights that await in The Legend Of Kyrandia.

Well, all I can say is that I'm completely gob-smacked. This type of adventure has become two-a-penny nowadays and most new ones that I appear just seem to be very 'samey'. Not The Legend Of Kyrandia, though - it's up there with the best of them.

The graphics are nothing short of astounding and the tiny character animations brilliant. Attention to detail and personality is the order of the day and the island of Kyrandia is one of the most well-presented and ingenious locations I've ever come across.

One of the best things about Kyrandia is Malcolm, the evil jester. He's just soooo evil and nasty that he must surely rank as one of the best evil adversaries ever to have popped up in an Amiga game. Every time he appears on screen you know that there are going to be some genuinely funny lines and witty quips - you'll soon wish that somebody would make a game solely about him.

The other inhabitants of Kyrandia are all individuals and come complete with such a wealth of expressions and characteristics that you'd believe they were real people. Disk accessing is always a problem with this sort of game and Kyrandia is no exception, although I'd say that it's about the same as and certainly no worse than Monkey Island 2, so if you put up with that then you should be fine.

The problems contained in the adventure are well designed and when they're solved it's a case of "Of course!" rather than "What?". Clues are provided by Brandon but at no stage does he give the game away nor do you find yourself picking up an object one screen before you need to use it. The point-'n-click interface is a joy to use and game designers should pay particular attention to this for future titles.

In short, Kyrandia is as excellent as Bill and Ted, as fantastic as those four super-hero types and sexier than sex itself - so much so that I think I'm going to name my children after it.