Reviews

A superb maze game where you, controlling Mervyn the apprentice wizard, who accidentally turned himself into a frog, have to defeat eight wizards for each of the eight levels of a fearful dungeon in order to regain your human form.

The atmospheric graphic style featuring a different maze layout for each level, with distinctive colors and progressively stronger enemies, the wide choice of spells you must use to withstand the challenge, but above all the absorbing and complex, yet fast-paced and taxing gameplay make Ranarama a true classic which will give you many hours of good fun.

Based directly on Paradroid from C64.. it derivates the topic from futuristic-metalic to RPG-fantasy. Replacing smooth scroll from C64 to brilliant and colourfull graphics from our beloved Spectrum.

It success in every possible way.
Mazes with a cool map system, makes exploration a very interesting and funny task.

Elements of RPG, spells, exploration and shoot'em up are mixed in a way that makes the game a great experience.

This is one of the few games I have come back to on the Spectrum and enjoyed as much as I did 30 years ago.

Although it is an arcade game, it offers several deceptively simple subsystems that add depth to the gameplay.

The game encourages strategic play and does not punish the player with instant death as many old spectrum games do.

Graphics and music are good by Spectrum standards and the system of gradually revealing rooms really adds to the sense of exploration.

Playing a little like a flip screen Gauntlet abeit with a frog as the protagonist. Thankfully the game's a lot better than Gauntlet and a lot more varied. Ok maybe not a lot more but a little more at least. When you encounter a warlock, by jumping on them you trigger a simple mini game where you swap around 2 letters at a time to spell out the word Ranarama. It's a bit crap but does break up the gameplay slightly. Talking of gameplay, it can be a bit frustrating when there's so many enemies you can't help but take damage. And it does seem to slow down just a little bit when there's a lot going on. Overall it's a good game and only just misses out on a 5 from me.

A very original adventure by Steve Turner (Avalon, Dragontorc, Astroclone, Quazatron, ...) for Hewson.

Mervyn the sorcerer's apprentice accidentally turned into a frog and is trapped in a dungeon. His mission is defeat every warlock while avoiding the evil guardian hordes: Ghouls, Dwarf warriors, fire gollums,...

Your need runes, spells and clyphs of power in your way to end the game.

The dungeon is an original colourful labyrinth that shows the rooms as you progress. Well-made movement of Mervyn the frog.

Enjoyable game with an iconic artwork by Steve Weston.