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I've been reviewing Dragon software for almost two years now, more or less since the machine first came out, so it's obviously an outstanding piece of software that makes you say "This is about the worst thing that's ever been CLOADed into the beast". This is a shame because the intentions are obviously good, but good intentions don't make for good software, I'm afraid.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen's story, Snow Queen, this is a spelling and shape recognition game from a software name new to me, Cambrian Computersolve.

At the start you're offered optional instructions and these are needed because the game itself is a mite confusing. You apparently have to help spell out the words that are hidden in the ice on the Snow Queen's enchanted lake, using either keyboard or joystick to move a blue window around the screen to encircle the letters in the correct order.

What happens is that the screen is filled with what appears to be a jumble of various block graphics patterns and you are given a word to spell out. Just as you can see patterns in the snow, so you can see that some of the letters stand out in the jumble, but others appear to be missing.

By moving the blue window around, though, it should be possible to find other letters because the window blocks out part of the apparent jumble to sometimes leave a letter that you didn't know was there isolated inside it.

Boredom is just one of the major faults, another being that there is no indication as to what age-range this is aimed at. In fact, it isn't suitable for any age. It's a shame to be destructive over what is meant to be a helpful program, but there's no room on the educational software shelves for this.