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"Look back through the dark mirror of the seasons to the time when the Eagles deserted this land of Albion to the ravaging of the Saxons. Look back to an age of bloody war and mysterious magickes."

And while you're at it, why not take a look back to about three years ago to a time when Boots was filled with Spectrum games that involved semi-mythical characters floating around dungeonesque backgrounds like Captain Pugwash characters.

These 'classics' usually involved searching for the lost sword of someone-or-other and fighting to the death against hordes of beasts from the dark site... get the picture? What this bijou history lesson is leading to is that Gremlin has for some reason decided to ressurect the genre - probably so that 16-bit games players can be introduced to the 'joys' that these games bring.

Artura starts with the usual sub-Arthurian legend gibberish. You are Artura, son of Pendragon and half-brother to the vil Morgause. This witch has kidnapped Nimue, apprentice to the wizard Merdyn... etc, etc. This bunk could easily have been avoided by then use of one sentence: find the lost Rune stones and rescue the girl.

The blurb also describes Artura as an 'arcade adventure', but I'm loathe to use this term as neither word is really applicable. Basically the idea is to explore a multi-roomed castle, consisting of left to right scrolling walls with doors in both the background and foreground allowing access both onto 'into' and 'out of' the screen.

Along the way there are opponents to be mangled, giant rats and falcons to be disposed of, good to be eaten and sections of Rune stones to be collected ('these stones will be the rune of me' - from the Kenneth Williams' school of awful puns). An energy bar below the play area diminishes every time Artura comes into contact with a nasty of any description - and guess what happens when this bar runs out?

Attack is always the best form of defence, and in Artura's case a never-ending supply of axes is used to deal with the opposition. Rats and the like can be seen off with a single swipe, but it takes a Castlemaine (that's four axes to you mate) to get rid of the rest of the opposition.

When a Rune is completed, play can then be switched into 'Rune mode'. This involves placing a pointer finger icon on the completed Rune and then stepping back in amazement as the 'Wheel of Cerriddwen' transports you to another plane - phew!

Try as I might, I couldn't find anything about Artura to recommend. The graphics are awful, the gameplay is seriously dated, the levels are too similar, the landscape is too confusing and no spark of interest is generated at any point.

This next little piece may sound like it should be shouted out from speakers' corner on a Sunday afternoon, but I really believe the software publishers shouldn't release games like this. Computer hardware has developed in leaps and bounds over the last two years - and as a sort of knock-on effect 8-bit games have improved beyond recognition in the same time. To my mind there's no excuse whatsoever for taking what is already a sub-standard 8-bit game and converting it upwards.

I'm going to have one last try at thinking of something nice to say about Artura... erm, the cover artwork's nice.