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The latest release from Vivid Image and Imageworks features an 11th century samurai suffering from a severe case of 25th century culture shock. But that didn't stop our reviewer getting a kick out of it...

One of the most eagerly awaited games of 1991 was First Samurai. But, because of Vivid Image's obsession with making it the best arcade adventure ever, it's sort of become the most eagerly awaited game of 1992. But has it been worth the wait?

First Samurai started as a bit of a joke. One of the Vivid Image team (John Twiddy) programmed Last Ninja 1 and 2 for System 3. So when he, Mev, Teoman and Raffaele (no, they're not related to the Turtles) set up their own company - Vivid Image, the name First Samurai was just a working name to wind up System 3. And yet, inevitably, as things developed the name stuck and our hero with the purple trousers was born.

The storyline is quite similar to a book by ace cartoonist Frank Miller, called Ronin. Our hero is a young samurai and protector to a great lord. Everyone is happy, until one day a powerful Demon King appears who thinks that he could have much more fun if he gave people a hard time, so he razes the village to the ground, killing the lord in the process. The only person left is the young samurai, who, with the help of a wizard mage, is catapulted forward into the future with a magic sword, to avenge the death of his master.

Unfortunately, you start the game as a bit of a wimp. Although you have full physical strength, you don't have any mystical strength at all - and mystical strength is essential for picking up and using magical items and wielding your magic sword. Fortunately, this is not to hard to come by, as everything you kill increases your mystical energy a little bit.

Once you have most of your energy your sword appears in your hand and, hey, killing, wounding and slaying the bad guys is suddenly much easier. However, you must be careful to maintain your mystical energy. If it drops too low, you won't be able to use - or even pick up - some of the magic items you will find in your travels. If this happens, you'll just have to go out and do some more killing to get your energy back up.

Normally, if you run out of physical energy, you die. But, if you're carrying your sword, it will disappear instead, turning into an extra bit of physical energy, to give you a last chance. If you live, you can get the sword back by killing things, again. It's an effective way for you to live to fight another day.

But First Samurai isn't all punching, slashing and killing. To progress from one level to the next, you need to call on the spirit of your master to overcome certain problems. For example, at the end of the first level, there's a waterfall to cross.

To do this, you have to collect the magic items (in this case, four logs), collect a bell and then go to the waterfall and use the bell to summon your master. He then puts the logs across the waterfall, and voila, only the end-of-level dragon and nine more levels, and you get to fight the demon king.

You start the game in the wilderness, back in your own time. In the first four levels, you have to fight your way towards the transporter that will take you forward to the future, chasing after the evil demon. Anyone who played our fabulous demo on last month's cover tape will be in for a shock, because the "real" first level is twice as big and there are lots more objects to find and use. The puzzle is to find the logs to cross the waterfall with. Once this is done, you have to face the end-of-level guardian, the dragon.

At the end of each level there are one or more chests which contain spinning coins - collect these for your end-of-level bonuses. In the fifth level you have to fight your way along a speeding subway train, picking up bonuses to rebuild your strength. The sixth level takes you through the grotty part of town where you can drop into the sewers, if you can find a way of moving the blocks from the entrance...

In the sewers your path is blocked by waterfalls but, of course, there is a way past. The eighth level is a journey through the smart part of town - a high-tech Bladerunner-esque place, where the way is blocked by lasers. Rather than using the door like everyone else, on the ninth level, you have to climb the scaffolding on the outside of the building, collecting computer disks to destroy the access computer to get into the building. The final level is a battle to the top of the penthouse to face the demon. To be successful, you have to collect spells that make the demon become flesh, so you can fight him to the death!

First Samurai is a real arcade adventure - not like some so-called games where adventure means you have to walk a lot to get to the action. In First Samurai, every minute is packed with action: enemies to kill, power-ups to find and puzzles to solve. To finish it, you'll need to be a good beat-'em-up player, a good puzzler solver and have patience - not all of the puzzles are as easy as they first seem.

There are so many good things about First Samurai that it's difficult to say which are the best. The most amazing thing about the game is how big it is. Every single one of the ten levels is exactly the same size as the Amiga game! There's a real feeling of space, as you can wander around anywhere you like on each level, from the start to the end and back again. Many of the chests reappear later in the game, so if you get stuck, retracing your steps is a good idea.

A lot of the puzzles rely on using the right magic in the right place. To help you with this, there's an intelligent hint system, so if you wander past the right place enough times without calling on the wiz, he appears long enough to let you know when you're in the right place.

The number of monsters and puzzles, dangers and power-ups that have been squeezed into the C64 is nothing short of amazing! Which makes for a really big adventure. It takes the programmers - John and Mev - over two and a half hours to play all the way through the game, and that's using infinite lives and knowing where all the magic items are!

The disk version has a special password system. This gives you special codes at the end of the fourth, sixth, eight and ninth levels so you don't have to play all the way through the game every time. And if you get to the end, there's a special password that may even win you a prize... (and each disk has its very own set of codes). But the most important thing is that the gameplay is bang on.

If there's a real fault, erm, it is quite hard to begin with. And there's no in-game music, because there was no memory left for it. But probably the worse thing about First Samurai is that if you buy it, you'll never be happy again with the mindless beat-'em-ups some companies produce.

If you want a game with excellent graphics, loads of gameplay and more lastability than almost any game released last year, then you'll love First Samurai. If not, then you may as well start a toenail collection...

1. No in-game music, only sound FX.

1. A totally massive arcade adventure!
2. Excellent main character that's really easy to control.
3. Big colourful, characterful enemies to face down.
4. Gorgeously intricate and beautifully coloured backdrops with parallax scrolling.
5. Sound FX adds bags of atmosphere.
6. There's more than one way to complete most of the puzzles.
7. Ten huge levels fit into only four loads!
8. Password system on the disk version.
9. Destined to be one of the all-time great C64 games!