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This is one of a new breed of games which combines adventure and arcade action in more than just a 'walk round collecting things' scenario. Here you actually have to figure out what to do with objects and how.

Your task is to get together the seven pieces of the Ice Crown, which are hidden throughout the seven levels of the Palace, and thus destroy the power of the Ice Queen. These levels consist of about 170 hexagonal rooms in a honeycomb arrangement, where about 30 are visible on screen at once.

Your character can walk between these rooms and you have an overview of him Evil Dead style. You also have the same form of movement by turning left or right and pushing forward.

There are five types of room, marked by different symbols: empty, swords, firesticks, lakes, and Moline crosses. The SWORD rooms contain objects and the FIRESTICK rooms replenish your only weapon, yes, the firestick.

The LAKE and CROSS rooms are impassable and on later levels form the screen into a maze-type layout which you have to work a way through. The entrances to some rooms are blocked so that you have to rotate the adjacent hexagons, using joystick down, in order to line up two gaps in the wall an move on.

From time to time when you are moving about the Palace, a warning will sound and various enemies will appear. You have to destroy or deflect these, since they are trying to make you evil.

During lulls in the action you can access the second screen of the game, which is where the adventuring takes place. At the top of this display are indicators of your status. A crown shows the number of pieces you have and a measure of your goodness. A skull's eyes light up when there are nasties on the action screen and a firestick which turns grey when discharged. Lastly there is a candle timer which burns down and is your time limit.

The lower half of the display has a list of objects you are carrying, or are in the room, on the right and a list of adventure commands on the left. These can be accessed using the joystick -- blue commands require an object, while red ones don't.

The items which you need are all found in sword rooms and as you progress through the levels these get harder and harder to get to. On each level you have to work out what to use, and how, in order to reveal a piece of the Crown. If you can't work it out -- and there are some red herrings -- a help function may give you a clue to the answer.

From time to time the ghost of your dead father, the King, floats across the screen, and contact with him boosts your goodness. More of a problem are rooms which occasionally freeze up and make it difficult to move about.

The music is haunting and lovely, while the graphics are nicely detailed on both the game screens. The actual problem is movement, and real time has been overcome quite well, although I wish you could walk diagonally through the hexagons instead of having to stop and change direction all the time.

BW


The Ice Queen's minions

The creatures that attack you are highly dangerous and rapidly sap your goodness if you let them hit you. A rotating sphere, wobbly amoeba, spinning sword, eagle, and raven, all have to be fended off. The first three can be destroyed by the firestick by holding down your fire button and guiding the fire into the beast.

The eagle and raven can only be deflected, and from the fourth levels it takes two hits to destroy the others. This isn't the only thing that gets harder, since the number of attackers also increases with the levels. This makes the attacks gradually more prolonged, and gives you less time for finding the Crown.

After destroying a wave of minions, a spinning multi-coloured cylinder will appear, and walking into this will cause it to explode and increase your goodness.
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PRESENTATION
74% To the point instructions and great adventure screen.

ORIGINALITY
82% New form of arcade adventuring.

GRAPHICS
65% Detailed hexagonal layout and atmospheric adventure symbols.

HOOKABILITY
76% The adventuring is absorbing and the action is hectic.

SOUND
67% Lovely tunes, nice sound effects.

LASTABILITY
73% Early levels are easy but gets tough after level four.

VALUE FOR MONEY
72% Excellent new form of game.