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I enjoyed Nightlore, I really did. The advances Ultimate made with its 'filmation' technique were, at the time, amazing. Alien 8 was more of the same. It was claimed it had a better plot, but it was generally felt to have less going for it. This latest offering changes the backdrops again, offers a few more nicely drawn nasties, but for all that is very much the same as its previous two adventure cartoons.

The cassette sleeve tells of a nightmarish village populated by ghouls and ghosties. All that can save the Kingdom is a weird little fellow in a habit. Guess who controls him?

The game uses the same 3D effects as before, with the interesting development that walls containing doorways vanish as you walk your hero through. It gives the game a more solid feel, and the buildings are very well drawn tudor-panelled affairs.

There's a motley assortment of meanies, some of them brainless and looking like escapees from a Maurice Sendak book, others with a nasty line in zapping you. You have a variety of different weapons (bacteria the blub calls them), and most of these work on most of the baddies most of the time.

The colour schemes are pretty dull, using no stippling or other screen-enlivening effects, and sounds are few and far between.

The Nightshade cassette comes with a second bonus tape, containing a game rejoicing in the name of 'Head Cleaner'. This one has very poor graphics, no sound (except a peculiar rasping for the tape machine while it's loading), and precious little plot. Seriously, though, it's quite a fun package, but it's about time Ultimate came up with something new.