Producer: Mastertronic
£9.99

It's just over a year since Kobyashi Naru was first released. Derek Brewster was pretty impressed by its smart iconselection system which was a definite improvement over that used in Clive Wilson and Les Hogarth's earlier game Zzzz. Shard Of Inovar and Venom were released soon after but the heartbreak and confusion that surrounded Derek's departure meant that they were never reviewed. For anyone who missed out the first time, they're now available in a single package compiled specially for +3 adventurers.

Although the exact icons differ in each, the process of selection is practically identical. Various symbols for words) representing basic actions (EXAMINE, GET, LOOK, VIEW etc) are arranged around the screen. Pressing FIRE selects a particular verb, and moving a second cursor over the location text chooses the appropriate noun. No typing of any kind is required; all actions are initiated via the keyboard or the joystick.

SHARD OF INOVAR

In a long-forgotten time, when the earth was populated by elves and wizards, the land was plagued by an ancient disease every winter which only a ritual connected with the powerful elfstone Inovar could lift. The Ritual of Decairn was uttered annually by Arthemin till, drunk with the thought of the stone's power, he became corrupt. In the resultant battle, the jewel was broken. As Arthemin's apprentice, you have no choice but to attempt to perform the ritual by yourself, releasing the agents of good that have become trapped as a result of the turmoil.

An incredibly complex scenario confuses what amounts to a fairly standard game of straightforward puzzles. An INVOKE icon which allows you to perform one of three rituals adds a little variety to the basic element of search, find and examine but on the whole the puzzles aren't compelling enough to keep you struggling with the longwinded and tedious input system.

KOBYASHI NARU

Immortality isn't granted to just anyone. To join the coveted Order you must complete the three phases of the Naru and bring back the necessary object from each. The three parts can be tackled in any order, though you can't begin a second task till you've completed the first.

Inevitably, with three separate and specific objectives, the puzzles are mainly sequential. Every now and then you're pulled up short in front of a seemingly impenetrable barrier, a massive masticating monster or an insurmountably dangerous obstacle - exactly the sort of problems to which the icon selection system is most suited. The emphasis is on short, succinct actions which it's easy to perform and which don't require complex input. There are enough options to keep you trying for quite some time, but with a list of specific available commands, you won't spend hours dawdling along completely the wrong track. Plenty of sudden death situations and an array of compelling puzzles make Kobyashi Naru by far the most compelling adventure of the three.

VENOM

As Rikka, you have agreed to meet Beris and Arrel, the ruler of Armosin, a world beset by evil, in the Dancing Drayman Inn. When they fail to turn up, the bonds of friendship leave you no choice to try and find them.

As you wander through this turbulent land, the viewing screen gives a potted history, guide book style, of Armosin's past. A TALK icon allows you to communicate with the country's generally unhelpful inhabitants. As speaking involves at least five moves which take far longer to execute than simply typing a line of text, progress is slow and turgid. Unless you're extraordinarily motivated, you may not want to persevere.

Despite their labour-saving appearance, icon-driven adventures on 8-bit machines tend towards the slow and inflexible. Unless you have the scope of 16- bit and a host of adventurers almost guaranteed to be in possession of a mouse, moving the cursor is bound to be an awkward and unwieldy process. Despite the obvious sophistication of the systems used in all three of Mastertronic's adventures, I was left wishing that I'd had a chance to type in at least some of the more basic commands. Somehow just typing n seems far simpler than chasing a cursor all the way around the screen.

Still, if your typing fingers are particularly sore, you're desperate for a change and happy to put up with the limitations of an icon-driven system, this may just be the compilation for you. Its three games certainly represent an unusual departure from the traditional adventure mould.

FAX BOX
Title: Plus 3 Adventures
Publisher: Mastertronic
Price: £9.99
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

Dipping its toes into the +3 adventure market is Mastertronic, with what's probably a sensible release bringing together three icon-driven adventures written by Clive Wilson and Les Hogarth, Shard Of Inovar, Kobyashi Naru and Venom. These have proved very popular with some readers in their tape versions, and very unpopular with others - including me!

The first thing to say is that these aren't souped-up remixes of the games, they're just the 48K tape versions all put onto the same disk. Not even the LOAD/SAVE icon has been changed from a tape to a disk, and when you want to LOAD or SAVE a game you're asked whether it's to/from memory or cassette, though if you choose the tape option it does work to/from disk.

If you've got your back issues handy then you can find out what I thought of both Venom and Shard Of Inovar by looking at the March 1988 issue, where I gave them over-all marks of four and six respectively. I did increase the mark for Venom by a notch soon after, as the version I'd been playing was faulty and had crashed, but that was purely a one-off problem and the versions of all games are in fact fine.

You map and move around and solve problems with the objects you find, but everything you do is controlled from a series of icons around the screen. These are activated by joystick or keyboard, and usually in combination with the text that normally apears in the centre of the screen. Choose the EXAMINE icon, for instance, and you can then highlight each word of the location description in turn to say what you want to examine. If you want to USE something from your inventory pick the USE icon and then run through your list of objects one by one 'til you can choose the one you want, to use.

All three games are basically 'olde worlde' fantasies, and with so much memory being given over to the program and presentation they obviously don't have the depth of a more conventional adventure. Beginners might like them, though, as they tend to lead you by the hand through the options available so you don't get stuck looking for the right word - but you can still get stuck looking for the right combination of icons and words. To some the description 'icon-driven adventure' is the worst insult you can give, but others find them enjoyable, and even grumpy old me has to admit they're very smartly programmed. And very smartly priced, at little more than you'd pay for all three games on tape. More please, Mastertronic. How about a Smart Egg compilation next?