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Well, I never thought I'd see the day. Willow Pattern, the game of the plate. The story so far. Our hero Chang must make his way through the beautiful, but deadly, oriental maze of the mandarin's palace to rescue the beautiful Princess Koong-Shee. The maze is indeed beautiful, pagodas, palaces, and sword-wielding samurai are all superbly depicted.

Before we get to the action I should perhaps explain why Chang wants to rescue Koong Shee and why shee is being held against her will in the palace. Perhaps she is the one who has to paint the patterns on all those horrible plates, in which case she deserves to be locked up.

In fact the princess is being forced into a marriage with the evil merchant Ta Jin, who probably has one of those long droopy moustaches that evil Chinese merchants always seem to be endowed with. As far as Koong Shee is concerned, it's a case of no ta Jin, because she's in love with Chang and that's why he's out to rescue her.

It's a bit like a platform game without platforms. You simply walk, or rather, run around the many screens of the palace picking up useful items as you go. Number one useful item is a sword, which you can fling in the direction of the samurai guards. Not a very nice thing to do, but essential as it gives you access to other parts of the maze. Crossing rivers is a laugh too. You have to jump from stepping stone to stepping stone, at the same time avoiding the malicious giants on the bridge who takes a swipe at you with their enormous paws.

I haven't actually found the princess yet, so I can't tell you whether it's worth all the chasing around. I understand that when you do find her and carry her off, her old man chases you out of the palace. Which is understandable when you look at it from his point of view.

A hard game to fault really. Great graphics, good oriental sound and fun gameplay. No points for sexual equality though Firebird, and I still don't like those plates.