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A long, long, long time ago in a land far, far, far away, lived creatures wonderful and generally weird beyond our comprehension. One such creature was the Asturias, a flying fire-breathing mythical dragon. Unfortunately, even with all his powers, one of these dragons has managed to get himself trapped in an underground temple.

To escape, Asturias has to search, find and destroy ten magical chests as well as overcome various obstacles like falling rocks and blocked passages, not to mention force fields. The biggest hazard he faces, though, arises from the pillars supporting the temple roof, which are very old and are starting to crumble. The only way Asturias can overcome this problem is by using his magic on them. The four pillars are graphically represented at the top of the screen, and as time goes on ever-widening cracks appear in each of them. Some pillars crack more slowly than the others. The only way the lizard can stop them from cracking in half and bringing the temple roof down on his head is to cast a repair spell on them. This is done by activating the spell half of the screen and moving his little wand on to the pillar that needs repairing the most. It is best not to repair pillars that are only slightly damaged because you have a limited amount of spell power.

Other spells include detect magic, which causes an ymagic on the screen to glow, read magic, which will read any messages or clues lying around, and finally, dispel illusions, which will cause anything that is not really there but is there to not be there anymore, so you can guide Asturias through there which is now here to the next there [What??! - Ed].

As you travel through the caverns of the temple, you will find exits blocked by force fields, guarding the way to the next level. These can only be deactivated when a problem is solved.

Clues to the problems are written on cave walls, and sometimes can only be found by activating a prior clue, or a chest. In the text it suggests that life would be easier if you light any torches you find on your journey. You light them by giving them a good strong blast with a fireball, but unfortunately they go out after only a few seconds. But the major problem me aud Asturias encountered was to do with the caverns being small and him being fat and wimpy.

I don't quite understand the meaning of the rainbow bit in the title, I could not find a single rainbow in the whole of the game. But I did find some very nice graphics. Asturias is very well defined, very smooth and very well animated, considering his size. The sound is up to scratch but does not extend to much beyond flapping noises and crashes.

Rainbow Dragon has got to be one of the best budget games I have played. It requires a lot of planning and a dash of luck when it comes to discovering hidden messages and illusions. I found myself getting more and more hooked each time I discovered a new message or new cavern. Rainbow Dragon is not a totally original concept, but it's one rarely seen nowadays. It reminds me of some of the old games which used to be available on the C64 about five years ago, except with a little more imagination.