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Chief Wizard is an accolade that can only be earned by the best. Taking the part of a junior wizard, the player embarks on a quest to defeat mysterious beasts and seven evil wizards in an attempt to gain the coveted title.

The first of three levels sees the young novice travelling between seven cities and six monsters. The player's movements are depicted on a scrolling map in the centre portion of the screen. The first time the player passes through a town he is given one food ration.

As he is spotted, an enemy's image appears on the screen, and battle commences. Each combatant is given the chance to select a spell. Once defeated, a monster yields one of six treasures. Returning this to the appropriate town adds a further two rations to the wizard's stock. With all six treasures safely delivered, the wizard moves on to the second stage.

A test of the player's power locks him in battle against a series of monsters. In the process he fills his book with powerful spells and, once successful moves onto the third and final round.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,
Graphics: miniscule play area, but detailed and colourful display
Sound: title tune only

'Wizard Warz is a brave attempt at a role playing game, that sadly doesn't quite make the grade. Graphically, the status screens surrounding the main playing field are effective, especially the spell books and opponent ID boxes. The main play area itself is a bit of a joke though, with a fat wobbling sprite limping around a drab and largely unimpressive background. Gameplay is slow and tedious; trundle around the landscape for a while, shoot at sprites as blobby as yourself, trundle around a bit more. I soon found myself bored almost to tears by the repetitious nature of the game. Sorry GO!, I can't say that this is a game on which I would readily spend my hard-earned cash.'

'Wizard Warz is a strange sort of game with loads of different spells and monsters, and a very long list of instructions. The first level is fairly easy to complete; just defeat the six monsters and return the treasure to the correct cities. Things get harder on the second level with about 30 different monsters. Graphically the game isn't very impressive, with small characters, although the still pictures of the monsters are detailed and colourful. The problem is that in play, all these beasts look identical. There is little sound during the game, but a nice title tune on loading. Using different spells to suit your current enemy is fun and a lot of strategy is involved in choosing the best ones. Wizard Warz doesn't completely hold your attention and the multiload is a pain, but fantasy fans should enjoy it.'

'The first time I played Wizard Warz I was bored. It was so difficult to get into the game that I felt like giving up there and then. But I persevered and when I finally sussed it out, a relatively good game began to emerge. The graphics are very varied - the figures that appear when you go near enemies are excellent, but the scrolling landscape is very plain and mainly made up of different types of shading. On the sound front there is a tune (if you can call I that) but no effects. I'm sure the programmers could have livened it up audio wise. Once you work out how to control the spells and which ones are best to use on each monster, you can get some fun out of Wizard Warz. It just takes a long time to work out.'