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Once again, we're going to have to apologise for giving a sparkling preview to a game that turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. There's still a lot of good stuff in Xena: Warrior Princess, but it's also annoying and a bit of a visual mess unfortunately.

Either die-hard fans of the TV series are going to be disappointed, or this game takes a long time to get going, because Xena: Warrior Princess doesn't really seem to have that much to do with the Xena characters and stories. To all intents and purposes, the idea is that you can play and fight as Xena or any of ten other characters that crop up somewhere later on in the game.

Each one has their own weapons, attacks and battle cries, which will come in useful as you fight for the right to reclaim the Talisman of Fate, come face to face with the monstrous Despair, and save Xena from the nightmare in which Ares has trapped her... but it could be about anyone and everything.

The graphics in particular aren't exactly inspiring. The Xena sprite looks like she's had a few too many legendary Cornish pasties to be honest, and it all seems strangely cartoon-ish. It's also very difficult from the start, where minecart/rapids/scrolling turtle-racing games link worlds, and the save system isn't great.

With precious few energy pick-ups and Xena's total vulnerability (she gets killed by bunny rabbits, for Zeus' sake!) the five-diamond save is inadequate. Also, there are many niggling problems - for example, the text sections are so slow they bring the game to a halt and crop up all the time, whether you like it or not. The game has the ability to cross over to the Hercules game with a link cable and with loads of vague adventures, there's plenty to see and do here - it may just be too annoying to get there!

Xena really is just as bad as Jem makes out! The graphics and sound are fairly bland and playability basically doesn't really feature in the game at all.

There are bucketloads of RPGs on the market at the moment which are better than this, so doubtless only devotees of the TV show will forgive the game its shortcomings.

Graphics 40%
That's Dawn French!

Sound 40%
Turn down that annoying tune!

Playability 60%
Slow and clumsy...

Lastability 100%
But there's loads to do!

Overall 74%
Great idea, loads to do, pig to play.