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Shogun Yuichiro is in trouble! His family sword, the "Sword of Honour" has been stolen, and now Shogun Yuichio faces a threat from the evil Toranaga who wants to rule all Japan. You are a brave ninja warrior who has been hired to bring back the sword and to defeat Toranaga.

If you're thinking that this sounds like another Last Ninja-type game, forget it! Sword Of Honour is actually better, bringing the fighting and exploration styles of The Last Ninja and Barbarian games into one of the biggest C64 games ever.

Control of the black-clad ninja is straightforward. Moving the joystick without pressing the Fire button makes him jump; launch a flying kick; move around the screen and, most impressively of all, perform forward or backward rolls along the ground to get out of the way of opponents or deadly obstacles such as fire-breathing dragons.

Pressing Fire accesses the combat moves, which differ according to which weapon you are using. When you find them you can choose between shurikens (throwing stars), claws, chain or sword and perform different moves with each.

Exploring the game is easy. Pushing forwards and backwards moves you in or out of the screen, along pathways or into doorways of buildings. And, when you achieve all the tasks in a level, the exit appears highlighted on-screen with a big arrow.

Without a doubt the graphical variety of Sword Of Honour is better than anything you'll have encountered in previous beat-'em-up adventures. This game contains more than two megabytes of graphics.

Each screen is loaded separately from disc in just a couple of seconds, but this means that a tape version would be impossible. If you think that it sounds too slow, bear in mind that The Last Ninja games took up to five seconds to draw each screen - and little touches make them beautiful. Look out for details such as broken bars and planks on a bridge, or a view in a forest where you can see a temple on the mountainside above you. Then follow the path out of the screen and climb up to the temple.

Player animation is smooth and is also full of detail, from the way your sprite draws his sword ready for combat, through to the deadly flying kick.

Sound deserves a mention. The introductory and title screens have two great pieces of moody oriental music. The in-game sound effects are also a treat. From the sound of birds and insects in the forest, to the crashing torrents of a waterfall, the care and attention lavished on this game is apparent.

The mixture of puzzles and obstacles is immense and more interactive than previous games. For example, you come across a samurai guarding a temple. Via the message box at the bottom of the screen he says:

"It is a hot day. Beware of the sun."

Perhaps he is suffering too much from the heat, and needs something to cool him down. In fact, perhaps he needs the fan you found in a house further up the path.

The range of characters is even more impressive, from meditating monks to ronin and heavily armoured samurai. Some of the clues are a little cryptic, so if you can solve them get writing to Andy Roberts at GameBusters with your hints and tips. The interaction with other characters, from fighting to trading objects, makes this game a (sword) cut above the rest.

To conclude: Prestige Entertainment (from Germany) have done a brilliant job creating the atmosphere of medieval Japan and have produced a very tough and playable game in the process.

Sword Of Honour is fully compatible with the FD drives and JiffyDos (for faster loading cartridge-based fastloaders like Action Replay also work), and you can install the 3.5" version on CMD hard drives or RamLinks.