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re you sitting comfortably? Wiped your noses? Rubbed away that nasty crufflenut? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time when the fields and rivers were uninhabited, and trolls could stomp on anyone they found, one Master at Arms decided to go and spoil it all. Somehow the talisman that had protected his village and his three sons (Julian, Phillips and Kevin) had got 'lost' and goblins, ghosts and skeletons were beginning to take over the town. It was going to be a real riot of a party – corpses and mediums, there was even talk of billy-goat pie – but the tightlipped old codger poured cold water on the whole thing and insisted on going for help.

Not that he's quite as smart as he makes out. He comes back with a death wound and a garbled story: an evil Necromancer is threatening to destroy the land and unless someone manages to perform seven consecutive quests, he'll never be defeated. Any sensible lad would think twice before going on an adventure like that. Unfortunately, Julian, Phillip and Kevin have all had a touch of too much of the sun, so they all want to go. Julian sets off first.

This is a graphical adventure (relying on the mouse) so a lot of Jazza's journey from home through the surrounding fields, forests and countryside, is spent fighting goblins or running away (told you he was a spoilsport). As ghosts and goblins are a lot more efficient in battle than some snotty-nosed kid, you probably won't get very far at first. Once you've notched up a few skulls though, you can start using some of the magic objects lying around, rummaging in boxes, spending money and casting spells – you know, abracadabra, shazam, minzaguinness...

The menu doesn't let you perform anywhere near as many actions as a text-input adventure but you can still talk to people, trade with them, look for hidden objects and unlock doors. These put obvious limitations on the puzzle factor (what are you supposed to do without an EXAMINE icon?) so in the end most of the fun comes from the sound effects – bogeying down to the music – and the graphics: you can even see the bubbles when somebody drowns. Ah, Lunch.

If you like your adventures like your billy-goat (well-done and meaty) you might get a bit fed up of all this sightseeing. On the other hand, if you're patient, fancy yourself as a bit of a fighting machine (boy, you must have some imagination) and like making maps, you might want to give it a go. Question is – should any adventure really cost £29.99? Don't ask me – mine was free.
(Reviewed by Chuck Vomit (Fictional Gnome dreamed up by the Zzap! Crew))


ATMOSPHERE 85%
PUZZLE FACTOR 71%
INTERACTION 65%
LASTABILITY 73%
OVERALL 76%

Title Faery Tale Adventure
Game Type Action Adventure
Company Microillusions
Players 1
Compatibility All (AGA patch available)
Submission Wolfgang Unger (Not responsible for the dodgy translation)

Review
The game appeared 1988 for the Amiga, later for the C-64 and PC (both
versions are substantially worse). It was programmed by Microillusions,
and probably the only good game this company produced. An Action RPG
concerning Adventure. The player controls a figure within a pseudo-3D
landscape, fighting everybody that sees unfriendly. Then one can steal
any valuables that they were carrying (gold, codes, weapons).
In the course of the game the player improves ever more and becomes more
intelligent and stronger (or dead). With some people you can also talk,
for example the princess (, hehe do not only talk) and the king. With the
witch, the black knight or the bad kite you should not talk. It's fighting
time! On an enormous turtle one can drive by the sea and fly on a swan
terribly fast by air and over mountains. In the country there is also
magic, which one can use with magic articles. You one can make light, heal
yourself, use a card to call or teleport yourself about the country, plus
a great deal more. You should eat frequently by the way.

You can save at any time. Oh, the game's object is it to kill any bad
guys and save the country. Beforehand one should free the
princess, so that one can marry her later. The play is probably age-old,
but is however great fun! It has been designed very cleverly, and providing
you don't have anything against the relatively simple action sequences,
you can have a lot of fun. The game's landscape (there is a map included)
is enormous, approximately 17000 screens worth. There'll be plenty of fun with
the cartography of the country without the map. There are for example a
desert, a canyon, an ice landscape, a lock, underground funeral places,
caves (one with kites), a city with a king, locks and towers, islands,
rivers, a witch forest with a witch, and a gruesome cemetery. Yes, there
are some problems. The game does not run quite so well with newer
Amigas and not from fixed disks, but I found after a few days a
Patch on the Internet, with which one can install it problem-free on the
hard drive, and it runs also on the A1200. Thus it runs perfectly!
Even the manual query can be removed if desired.