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As wizards go, Trantoss was a real meanie. The villagers were so fed up with the way that he ruled them that they stole his mace, his source of power, and broke it into several pieces. Now, many years later, strange rumours and happenings are striking fear into the hearts of the villagers once again. People are disappearing together with their treasure and it is said that Trantoss isn't dead and that his minions are trying to reassemble the mace. Lobo and Scarne are two brothers whose parents have vanished and they decide to investigate. The villagers are more than willing to give whatever help they can as the two would-be heroes attempt to find and destroy the mace once and for all. If they can recover the treasure as well, so much the better.

You control both brothers in the game and can swap between them at will. One is large and strong, the other lithe and agile and you must remember that in order that you can get the right brother to perform the appropriate task. Lobo and Scarne can be separated from one another (they normally travel together) and this will be necessary if you are to succeed in your quest. Which brother is currently under your control is displayed in the central part of a very attractive screen. On the left is a vertical format illustration of your location whilst the box on the right is for your commands and their responses.

The game starts with you in the village and you must equip the brothers before paying a stranger to lead you through the hidden paths of the forest. He leaves you a staff inscribed with strange runes. You can attempt to decipher these straight away although there are a lot of strange words to mislead you. Fear not though, for there is a translation elsewhere in the game. The problems are fairly straightforward and the vocabulary is reasonable i.e. no obscure words although one slight eccentricity is that the program checks for the first five letters of a word, instead of the usual four, and this caused me all sorts of problems until I realised what was going on.

Trantoss is a bright colourful game with a logical storyline and is well worth investigating. My only real quibble is that it is a bit too linear in structure so that problems have to be solved in a particular order. This is bad news if you get stuck in a particular place as you can't go and try something else whilst you ponder.