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Merlin is one of Thorn's cheapo 'Sparklers' range. It may be bargain-basement but there's certainly nothing nasty about it. Nothing, that is, except for the bits that are supposed to be nasty.

Action takes place on a simple, but well designed, backdrop screen. On the first level this has Merlin's pot sitting in the centre, a castle on a distant hill, some mountains and a forest. Cute. Merlin zooms around the screen under control of your joystick.

You must pick up various objects (frogs' legs, skulls, that kind of thing) and drop them in the pot. Why you may ask? Well, Merlin must have a magical brew in order to keep his strength up. He needs this strength to destroy the evil nasties. The evil nasties try to destroy his crew by dropping antispells on parachutes into it. A kind of vicious magic circle.

Once you've managed to complete a few brews (things were happening too fast for me to count) you get to move on to level two, and eventually three. The only thing that really changes is the scenery and the for the creatures take. They change from bats to spiders. They fire at you, which makes them kind of unpleasant, but being Merlin you can withstand a good few hits before losing one of your three lives. You can also fire back, of course.

The only thing you have to be really wary of is the blue hellwasp, which kills on contact. The blue hellwasp, in fact, was the only thing that really miffed me about this game. Several times I materialised right on top of it, causing instant death before I even had a fighting chance.

Even taking account of the hellwasp, Merlin is an excellent little game and a bargain at three quid.