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Mrs Thatcher might be keen on the occasional stringent economic policy, but she's got nothing on the Princess of Darkness. Similarly, Britain in the late '80s seems like Disneyland compared with the Land of Belorn. Said Princess has been beastly all over said land, resulting in the sudden appearence of four Skulls. These are immensely evil and dedicated to the furtherance of unhappiness, darkness and East Enders.

This obviously can't be allowed to continue. To the succour of the troubled country springs The Druid. His (therefore your task - the defeat of the Princess and all her millions of minions. Yeah, more minions. His only weapons - an assortment of spells.

These are quite a respectable selection and include magic to wallop the evildoers with water, fire or electricity. Actual physical contact with any of Princess' punchy pals is to be avoided, as it saps your energy, makes your hair fall out and ruins your social life. Run out of energy, and you can cash in your golden sickle.

Energy can be replenished by a spell on a Pentacle of Life, the revolving five point stars that are scattered about.

Remember the skulls? They remember you. Their habitation is an eight-floored tower, which stands in the middle of the forest where all the unholy hankypanky goes on.

You obviously want in, but standing outside shouting "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair" as is traditional will get you nowhere and shatter any forest credibility you might have built up. Skulls are renowned for their lack of flowing locks and also have no sense of humour. What you need is a key. Keys can be found in caskets. Caskets can he found just lying around. They can be persuaded to disgorge their contents, one at a time, by being bumped into.

However, the noise of the bumping attracts the attention of every meanie within earshot and you have to dispose of them before you can do any more chest disgorging.

As well as keys, chests have a number of other utilities hidden within. Two of the more useful are the invisibility incantation and the chant of chaos.

This latter is a cross between a sorceror's smartbomb and Lucifer's lucozade; it de-minions the surroundings and enhances the old energy. Useful for the odd tight corner.

And if you're really lucky, you'll find the Dusty Bin of the druid world, a Golem.

You're thinking "But they came later, when Rabbi Joseph in the 13th century brought a man of clay to life and called it Golem (from the Yiddish Goylem, meaning a shapeless mass)." Cynic. He was probably a stone age Druid on the side.

And so the two of you battle into the sunset. Will you be the glorious leader that liberates the land, or just another by-election candidate?

I loved the little wizard, sorry Druid, shuffling round the maze. Unfortunately he is, in my opinion, unfairly outnumbered by the bad guy demons, or maybe I'm just not quick enough on the joystick.

Anyhow, trying to get away from them sapped him (me) of the energy required to save Belon. Perhaps he'd stand a better chance if he could run instead of shuffling everywhere!

Good colourful graphics and interesting to play but I wish I could make it all end happily ever after.

Ah, but is Druid any good? Well, as the martial music fades away from the loader the Wright stuff again, yawn), be prepared for another spelkizzling one-and-a-half player game.

Graphics good, sound sufficient, feel fine. Not bad at all. A few days fun to be had, especially if you've played and enjoyed Gauntlet.

Another song-while-u-wait loader by Melvyn gets this one off to a good start. The graphics don't let the side down either, even if they do only take up half the screen.

The scenery is a wee bit difficult to negotiate: Some shadows look as if they ought to be inpenetrable, thus wasting time while you weave your way round them.

The barley sugar-type twists that show how badly you're doing are a nice touch. This sort of thing may seem trivial, but it's that sort of attention to detail that keeps me at it, even when I get the rating Halfwit.