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In the latest episode of the ever popular King's Quest series, King Graham of Daventry has fallen gravely ills, and his daughter, Rosella, fears for his life. The image of the good fairy Genesta appears in the King's magic mirror, offering to help Rosella to find a magic fruit which alone will save her father's life. However, Genesta's powers are being undermined by the loss of her talisman, and without it, she too will soon die.

The talisman is in the possession of the evil Lolotte, whose castle, by happy coincidence, is located on Tamir, the very same island on which the magic fruit tree grows. So, using her rapidly failing powers while she is still able, Genestra carries off the princess, disguised as a peasant girl, to Tamir, from where she departs, flying off to a nearby island to rest up in her palace.

King's Quest IV has what I consider to be the best graphics and music from Sierra to date. Rosella's animation is superb. She can crawl, swim and jump, and when she walks her long plaits, when viewed from behind, sway realistically from side to side.

As in all Sierra adventures, the waiting time when pictures, sound and animation are loading from disk, tends to spoil the flow of play, although the picture caching in King's Quest IV does help to mitigate this a little.

Perhaps the most disappointing feature is the fact that Sierra still haven't learnt how to give subtle hints in the text to help the player along. There are two types of puzzle that would benefit from such hints.

The first type is where the player finds himself at the end of a long play sequence, only to discover he hasn't an object he needs. The whereabouts of some of these objects can only be discovered randomly. For example, there is no way the unicorn can be delivered to Lolette without a bridle, but in order to find the bridle, Rosella must first be swallowed by a whale. The trouble is the whale doesn't always appear when Rosella is swimming and so the whole game can be jeopardised by an event on which the player is unaware.

Secondly, there is the 'absolute bafflement' problem. This is the kind where the player knows something needs to be done but no obvious or particularly logical action comes to mind. For example, the fisherman and his wife are a fairly miserable couple, and it transpires that business is bad - the fish haven't been biting lately. There is just no hint of what is expected of Rosella, and the benefit of even anything at all only becomes apparent after the random whale incident - if the player is lucky enough to run into it. If only the fisherfolks' conversation ha included a remark along the lines of: "Nothing short of a few diamonds will get us out of trouble now..." the bafflement would have been replaced by a defined puzzle - get the diamonds!

Despite this, King's Quest IV is an enchanting adventure with some real fairy-tale pictures and magical happenings. Even playing the game through knowing the solution is not easy, and little of the enjoyment is lost. For fans of previous King's Quests, it's a must.