St. George And The Dragons - Personal Computer News 4

Computer: Dragon 32
Price: £6.95 (Cassette)
Publisher: CRL
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard
Rating: 2/5

Joystick Slayer

The world of enchanted castles and magic stones usually means a text-only adventure, but St. George and the Dragon is a high-resolution graphics confrontation between George and a fire-breathing red dragon. The latter's sole aim in life is to turn the saint into the medieval equivalent of a Big Mac.

Objectives

You play St. George, and your aim is to free the maidens from the castle - feminists will have to write their own version! You do this by smiting the magic red stone with your sword.

Your path is blocked by a river (guess what happens to a saint in full armour in there?), and the aforementioned dragon, which homes in on you. The fire button activates the sword, and if you can get at the beast in between its fiery breaths you'll have a dead dragon on your hands.

With the dragon despatched you can cross the river by the slippery bridge, smite the stone and notch up a point. You keep going till your five lives are used up, and there are four skill levels to choose from. The instructions are clear and simple, and the game is well presented.

In Play

After a rather wordy preamble the game starts, and the dragon is heading towards you. It's difficult to stab him at just the right moment, but if you do he bleeds messily from the part you hit.

Once free of the dragon you have time to manoeuvre carefully over the bridge and hit the stone. The movements are fairly smooth for Basic, and your positioning must be exact.

Verdict

The graphics are impressive, there's no doubt about that, but the problem is that killing the dragon is the highlight of the game, and the rest is anti-climax. When you hit the stone you only get another game and a point scored. The game speeds up slightly, but your only reward when your lives have all gone is a score and a remark like "My old gran could do better". Not so much as a flash of ankle from the wretched maidens.

The game takes up only about 8K of memory, so there's actually plenty of room for a further adventure inside the castle as an incentive for passing a certain score. The game is a good attempt at something different, and not bad at the price, but overall I feel it is a wasted chance.

Rating

Lasting Appeal 2/5
Playability 3/5
Use Of Machine 3/5
Overall Value 2/5