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Black Magic is one of those nice 'n cute games that Americans love so much. They'll palm if off on Junior to stop him playing socially unsound stuff. Junior then throws it back and says "Hey pop, gimme back my Raid Over Moscow".

Sadly, Black Magic is just too cute for its own good - it's sweeter than the chocs themselves. Worse still, it's well and truly in the ladders and platforms mould, with a sprinkling of Ghosts And Goblins here and there.

Break out the cookies, the story goes like this. Anakar the magician (social paragon) had six eyes. Zahgrim the Red Warlock (social deviant) turns him to stone and scatters his eyes around the land of MariGold. You must find the eyes and replace them in the statue so that Zahgrim gets what's coming to him (is deposed).

Your journey takes you through six levels of the land, which is conveniently strewn with ladders. Also strewn around is food, in the shape of fruit and roast chickens, and spell scrolls. You must collect both whenever you can because you're constantly running out of food, and constantly running into predicaments that just cry out for a bit of hocum.

The collection of nasties includes flowers that throw frisbees, trolls that curse you unless you give them good, and assorted demons, bats, ghosts and water monsters. Needless to say, that lot are all bad for your health. They can be sorted out by firing arrows at them, which you pick up as you go.

Less nasty is a bird that occasionally swoops down and picks you up. Sometimes it deposits you down in a reasonable spot and on others, right in the thick of it.

You start as an apprentice, with a choice of only two spells - Vanish and Blink. Releasing prisoners as you go increases your points total which eventually ups your status and the number of spells available to you. By the way, this isn't difficult, prisoners are released merely by walking past them.

A comprehensive set of information is displayed at the bottom of the screen: your health, food reserves, how many spells and arrows you have left, the level you're on, eyes collected and the number of points you've amassed. Keeping an eye on health, food, spells and arrows is pretty essential. Early demise is usually due to running out of food.

You also need to know just when to use spells to stay out of trouble. The vanish spell, for example, will protect you but won't let you pick anything up. Blink simply transports you to another part of the maze, into a good or bad area.

Finally, messages are displayed in a window whenever something happens to you. The most annoying is, "Yum yum yum, that hit the spot" when you pick up some food.

To its credit, Black Magic is a big game and offers a very large area to explore. Locations are signposted so you always know where you are. But there's nothing really special about the graphics or the various nasties, nor is the gameplay particularly challenging.

There's nothing shoddy about Black Magic. It's well programmed and well designed. But however competent the execution, the idea is as flat as Watneys on a warm day.