TF01
3,SIMON THE SORCERER
4,by Adventuresoft
SIMON THE SORCERER, Adventuresoft, £39.99

Programming - Simon Woodroffe, Alan Bridgeman and Mike Woodroffe
Graphics - Kevin  Preston,  Paul  Drummond,   Maria  Drummond,  Karen
           Pinchin and Jef Wall
Sound and Music - Media Sorcery  and  loads  of  other  people  doing
                  voices!

Ratings:

Graphics    -  8/10
Sound       - 10/10
Playability -  8/10
Lastability -  8/10
Innovation  -  7/10

Overall - 89%

                           Marcus Priddey
                          ----------------

If, like you are a fan of  the Monkey Island adventures and the like,
you are absolutely going to love this  game. To those that don't know
what they are  (welcome  back  from  the  Andromeda  galaxy) they are
adventures like none other. There's none  of this typing "Walk to" or
"Pick up" as it's already done for  you.  All you have to do is point
the cursor on the instruction and the item concerned and the CPU will
do the rest.

Now, Monkey Island is  also  quite  fun  to  play,  with little jokes
cropping up here and there. Simon  the Sorcerer goes way beyond that.
Those, like myself, who read  the  manual  before they play will know
what they are about to let themselves  in  for as it fails utterly to
take itself seriously.

However, once you load up the  game,  make sure you have something to
catch your jaw in. Speech  is  nothing  new  in games, but speech all
through  out  the  game,  even  on  the  opening  credits  is  pretty
astounding stuff. What makes  it  even  more  astounding  is that the
speech of the main character, Simon,  is  done by none other than Red
Dwarf's star, Chris Barrie.

The jokes throughout the game are hilarious and it will take the mick
out of anything. For instance, you  will come across Tolkien's Golem,
a goat eating troll (think about it) and others.

Graphically, the game  is  on  a  par  with  Monkey  Island,  but the
soundtrack has to be heard to  be  believed  and  it will have you in
stitches. The only problem I  have  with  the  game  is  that it is a
little slow as the  cursor  (and  Simon)  move  as  though they're in
treacle. Apart from that, this is a gem  of a game and once you start
playing, I don't think you'll be to  bothered by the £40 price tag as
it is money well spent.

Graphics    -  7/10
Sound       - 10/10
Playability - 10/10
Lastability -  8/10
Innovation  -  7/10

Overall - 96%


                             Sven Harvey
                            -------------

You probably know that this  game  features  speech from Chris Barrie
(he be Rimmer -  coward  of  the  small  rouge  one  and  Brittas - a
managerial Frank Spencer) and Roger  Blake (Spitting Image) and laods
of other people.

It's an adventure game of the point  and click variety with of course
full speech and great graphics. This  game  is  a pig to control with
the CD32 controller so GET A MOUSE  (you'll  need  it sooner or later
anyway). The animation  is  really  good  and  the  background (Amiga
generated) music is atmospheric  but  can  get annoying very quickly.
There are jokes a plenty,  but  they  arn't  funny the 100th time you
here them so luckily you  can  skip  past  speech  you have heard and
there is a save game facility (but it takes up most of the CD32s non-
volatile RAM).

Initally the game is fun to play  as  you discover all the speech and
jokes but after a while you will  be  wanting to get on with the game
and it simply won't let you down and even with the help of a personal
transporter in the form of a magic postcard the game is still far too
sluggish. Another annoying thing  is  the  detection  of objects. You
almost literally have to get the  pointer right over some objects and
you will find yourself cursing the  game  becasue you can't find that
elusive object you need  to  complete   a  particular  section of the
game. However you WILL keep trying and the game will take you a while
to complete even with the  hint  book!  Mind  you  it should do as at
£39.99 the game is a little pricey!  So to the Adventure Soft lads in
Sutton Coldfield for Simon II  make  the detection areas bigger, make
the transporter (postcard) better with  access  to as many screens as
possible and don't charge more than £29.99!  Mind you I can't wait to
see Simon II anyway,  its  just  that  this  game  could  have been a
classic and it isn't.

Graphics    -  8/10
Sound       -  9/10
Playability -  6/10
Lastability -  8/10
Innovation  -  7/10

Overall - 82%