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Death-struggles between wizards aren't normally my cup of tea, but Salamander has had the clever idea of upgrading the old paper-scissors-stone game. In Wizard War, as well as making your own choice you have to guess your opponent's.

The number of players can vary from two to nine, but if there are more than two they are grouped into red, green and yellow teams. You can choose your own teams, or let the computer do it.

Two players then confront each other in battle, each choosing one spell from the four on offer, which in turn are randomly chosen from 24. The players can elect to know or not to know each other's spells, which include lightning bolts, thunderstorms and vampires.

Some spells are purely defensive, like the force bubble, which will keep out anything but a demon, while others are more offensive but use up more of the 500 units of manna with which you start the game.

When you run out of units you lose - or, in other words, the most manna'd wizard wins the game.

My first reaction was panic - how can I ever learn to play this game? I thought. The 16-page spell book that comes with the cassette lists the various spells and the damage they do, as well as the manna they use up, their duration, how much joystick control they offer, and - if you're ready for another complication - their colour. A red spell will be most effective when used by a red magician, particularly - you are following all this, right? - if there's a red sun in the sky.

The game is slow at first, as you must refer to the book constantly, but once the tactics are mastered the fun begins.

The wizards face each other on hillsides, and launch their spells. A dragon, for instance, might be guided across the sky to burn your opponent to death - provided his fireball hasn't reached you first of course.

A plague of frogs can descend from on high, or an earthquake be guided upwards till your opponent takes a realistic tumble into it when it reaches him.

My own favourite was the demon, who remains invisible for a long time then suddenly appears to lunge at your opponent. Unless he's decided to attack you instead.

This is an excellent and original game, and shows that the Dragon's high-resolution graphics can be used to good effect. It should give you hours of fun.