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Sword Of Sodan's extravagant plot tells of Lordan, the king of a magical world of myths and legends who is slain by an evil wizard. The dead king's son and daughter find the sword of the great warrior Sodan and set out to avenge their father.

Lordan's son is Brodan, a hunky beefcake with rippling flesh and long-flowing locks, while his twin sister Shardan is... very much the same actually. Either offspring is controlled in similar fashion to Palace's Barbarian II. What follows is another strut and slash session along a scrolling background, with massive characters facing off against detailed backgrounds.

1. One of the first battles takes place in the cobbled streets of the local market town. Not only are there hordes of armoured foot soldiers to slay, but a nimble leaping manoeuvre is called for as barrels also roll down the street. At the end of the level, a sword-brandishing giant awaits decapitation in one of the game's most bloodthirsty graphic sequences.

2 The bridge section is one of the toughest to complete, with deadly spikes springing up from the floor, putting Brodan's ganderparts in extreme danger (ouch!).

3 Special items and power-ups can be collected along the way. Apart from the obligatory extra lives, there's a Magic Zapper (smart bomb), a spell to increase the sword's cutting power and a shield which renders you invulnerable for 30 seconds.

4 The road to Zora's domain is spread across eleven levels, and is shown here on Brodan's map, which appears at the beginning of each level to indicate the area he is about to enter.

Discovery has a reputation for excellent graphics - a tradition which has happily continued in this case. The sprites, all of which are at least half the screen in height, are extremely well defined and animated, and coupled with the marvellous parallax scrolling backdrops serve to give the game an almost coin-op quality.

Wolves cry and thunder claps in the graveyard while the flying bat-creatures shriek hideously when killed, adding sonic atmosphere to the package. It's a shame then that the gameplay doesn't live up to the standards set by the aesthetics. It's possible to hack a path through half of the game first time around, simply by hammering away on the Fire button whenever an enemy comes near.

The traps and airborne adversaries on later levels help to vary the gameplay, but ultimately there's some doubt as to its staying power.

Discovery Software has an ST version in the pipeline (breaking its three-game Amiga-only tradition), scheduled to appear in early Spring at 24.99. Programming is still in the early stages however, so it's uncertain how many disks the game will occupy.

Work on this version has only just begun, but it should appear at the same time and price as the ST. It's likely to be EGA only, so those with lowly CGA machines may have to miss out.