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Wizadore marks Imagine's second release for the BBC Micro, since their recent revival, and it is good to see that they are back in form again with an excellent game, colourful graphics and pleasing sound effects.

Wizadore is one of those arcade adventures that are becoming more popular as time goes on.

Typically, you are in control of a character who is gifted with limited magical powers, as his only real strength is from reading magic scrolls. With them, you are able to destroy your opponents, who are either firing arrows at you, or they are marching up and down on guard duty. Your task is to walk around a world of forests and dungeons and dragons... not to mention Robin Hoods everywhere firing arrows at you: Unless you have a magic spell on you, it would be best to jump over the arrows, before they hit you, and, of course, kill you.

You are reincarnated four times in all, starting at whatever screen you died at, which is good news if you jumped ten bottomless pits, six arrows, and skillfully avoided the armed guards, only to be hit by a sword dropped from above, by soldiers sitting astride creatures that look more like green Parrots than Griffins.

The graphics are excellent, being colourful and smooth, the scrolling is not as smooth as Castle Quest, a game to which Wizadore bears a great resemblance (duckng, running and picking up thngs in a similar environment), but as a whole, it is well implemented. There are treasures along the way which can be collected and used, and some are purely for show.

My only real criticism is that Wizadore, at early levels of the game, is far too difficult. Jumping over the arrows requires precision timing, and only the slightest miscalculation can make you fall into the bottomless pit. Thankfully, the game did not get too difficult from there on, so if like me you feel like giving up on the first level, do what I did and come back to the game a week later, it does wonders.

As a whole Wizadore is a well implemented version of a popular game scenario, it uses the BBC's graphics capabilities well, and is complemented by good (if repetitive) music. There is no option for a joystick and there is a single high score number. The characters fit in reasonably well (although I'm not too sure about those parrots!), and Imagine's choice of keys are comfortable. Wizadore is a well-paced game, certainly, timing is far more critical in Wizadore than many games available and should be action-packed for just about anyone.

Recommended, if you like arcade adventures.