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Things aren't looking too good for the once-peaceful Kingdom of Capra. Civil war broke the solemn law of bigwig Magnus, Wizard Eternal, and so allowed the creatures of darkness back into the land.

This closes the door on all things rosy: the foul-smelling Capricorn has taken Magnus captive and is disseminating the putrid stench of death and destruction everywhere.

Capra's bad news though, means a stroke of good luck for Thor The Warrior, Thyra The Valkyrie, Merlin The Wizard and Questor The EIf. Out of work since their last big adventure in Gauntlet II, they're thirsty for battle and hungry for revenge...

This is the third incarnation of Gauntlet, and the first not to have been converted from a coin-op original. The classic overhead-scrolling mazes have been flipped on their side, expanded into worlds and transformed into isometric 3D.

Also, the original fab foursome have been joined by a quartet of new heroes and the hundred-plus levels have been replaced by eight evil-infested worlds containing almost 40 sub-levels.

The crucial question is still the same however: can the goodies wipe out the baddies or will those dirty slime-bags win?

Just when it looked as though Gauntlet was a dead horse that couldn't be flogged any further, US Gold proves that it's worth a few more lashes. Thanks to the 3D facelift and the addition of some nifty problem-solving, the main problem associated with the first two Gauntlets - repetitiveness - has been obliterated. The isometric perspective has replaced the struggle to amass points and move on to the next level with a touch of puzzleability and some genuinely different graphics.

It all looks pretty impressive: the eight-way scrolling is fast, the backdrops are slick and the huge array of innovatively-designed monsters gives plenty of incentive to see what's waiting around the next corner. The sound is even better: coming from the same team that provided the excellent backing tracks to Ghouls 'N Ghosts, LED Storm and Bionic Commando - it just has to be heard to be believed!

Otherwise, there's nothing Earth-shatteringly original about any of this (ultimately it's just a glorified hack- and shoot-'em-up), but for Gauntlet fanatics and virgins alike, there's still more than enough quality action to justify the asking price.

Less power means more sacrifices. The ST version sports less-sophisticated music, a slower (but not horrendously so) processing speed and 'burst' scrolling - but in content it doesn't differ at all.

Bad new for you would-be IBM warriors. US Gold has no current plans to run this Gauntlet on your machine.