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Bug-Byte have described this new game as "A fully animated cartoon adventure" so it was with some interest that I loaded up Rapscallion. Having ploughed through the instructions which also include the story so far. To start you are the king who has had his castle stolen by Rapscallion the rogue who has cast you into the dungeon, fortunately there is a fairy princess (isn't there always?) who sets you free by transforming you into a bird but also allowing you to turn into a fly. In these forms you can fly around your castle to search for keys that will allow you to reach the magic labyrinth and thus defeat Rapscallion and regain your castle.

The graphics are strangely only done at half resolution which gives the game a rather primitive look, perhaps that was done to save memory, in which case I think I would have preferred less chambers but more detail in those shown. Each of the chambers has a different feature or features, in one chamber for instance you come across a game of tennis where you have to avoid the play, then there are cats and lily ponds and baby concords (the flying variety) to avoid.

Mapping the chambers is somewhat confusing as there is no logical way from one chamber to another, you would think that if you exit one chamber from the top of the screen you would arrive in the next at the bottom, not a bit of it. This means that you spend quite a time just wandering around trying to work out where you are, where you have been, where you are going and whether the answer to the meaning of life is 42.

I thought that the best feature of this game was being killed, that is not as daft as it sounds as you are then turned into a ghost which allows you to wander around at will through all the chambers with no harm coming to you (you can't kill a ghost). Of course the reverse side of this is that you cannot achieve anything either but I spent many happy hours just meandering around admiring the scenery. To obtain your real form again you press a "Transform" key and you are back in business.

If you manage to catch up with Rapscallion you are given the freehold of your castle. There is a save facility but if you use this to complete the game then you will only get the leasehold of your castle but I suppose even that is better than being locked up in your own dungeon even if you don't have to pay the mortgage.

In summary then an entertaining game which has some amusing moments but to the more skilled at this type of game will probably not have lasting interest as it is not too hard to catch up with Rapscallion but it is still worth adding to your collection and should find a place in the top 40.