Fancy a beer? You can bet yourself a pint that Hagar does. The beer swigging overweight drunkard is back and this time he's in the form of a computer game character. Those familiar with Hagar will recognise him from the cartoon that appears ina daily rag, but for the unenlightened - you're obviously reading the quality press.

Hagar is your typical lager lout. He's always in the dog-house, but for now he has the opportunity to change this depressing image to that of a person that is reliable and can get things done. Can he d it? Can a leopard change his spots? That's up to you.

Er indoors said
Helga, his dearly beloved wife, has decided to test Hagar in what initially might seem an easy enough task. As everything does when you are under the influence of alcohol (Not that we know - Ed) and she has challenged him to bring back various items of value strewn around a world of eight different levels - islands in this case.

Helga is a mean and mighty woman and unless she gets what she wants, it's chicken-feed and the garbage for Hagar. Travelling through each of the islands involves Hagar jumping around what is basically a platform-orientated game, collecting various objects for different weapons, energy or, unforgettably of course: beer! Along with these you must also look out for the objects that Helga has requested that you bring back home. Ad this is the tricky bit.

The objects that you need are pretty valuable, and so are not easily obtainable. Like most platform games there is an element of puzzling out required before the objects are obtainable. This involves doing certain things in a certain order, or buying the correct items that you will need from the shop. Shop? Yes there is a shop, where extra lives, energy and weapons can be bought, to supplement the sword that Hagar has as standard to fend off any enemies, of which there are several - Hagar is not very popular in these parts!

As well as a shop, there is of course, a pub (or Taverne as it is called in the game). Entering the pub allows you to spend the hard-earned money that you got by beating up your foes, and lets you buy yourself a beer. This isn't as foolish as it might sound, because beer is Hagar's main source of energy. Without it, God knows where our hero would be.

Alongside the extra weapons such as knives, spears, axes and fire-balls, you also have the customary smart-bomb, to really show the bad guys who's boss! But Hagar also has another trick up his sleeve: his super sword. Holding down the fire-button for a while gives your sword that extra bit of thrust.

Horribly decent
There is not much that this game has over any other platform-style game. The graphics are nice, and the sound effects are decent, though not spectacular. In fact apart from the 'famous' name licence, it's an ordinary run-of-the-mill game.

It's an easy game to play, with a simple plot and a straightforward path to travel along to get to the end of each level. There is nothing there that puts Hagar The Horrid above other games of this genre.

Three disks and slow loading, even for those with three disk drives, and plenty of memory, shows little thought of the game operation, much like the actual gameplay. It's not a particularly bad game, and if you do not already have a platform game (where have you been?), you might find it a pretty amusing little jaunt - by all means give it a bash. I'd rather stick to Manic Miner. Now where's that Spectrum of mine...

Everyone's favourite beer-swilling Viking is set to invade your local softshop this Christmas in a platform-packed game based on the exploits of the overweight barbarian form the famous comic strip.

Set over eight levels, the game involves Hagar in frequent acts of gratuitous violence as he attempts to plunder sackfuls of gems and jewels from neighbouring islands. Before setting sail in his rickety longboat, Hagar is presented with a list of loot to bring back from each island by his battleaxe of a wife, Helga. Failure to keep her supplied in riches results in poor Hagar being booted out of the family home.

Each island is made up of a number of interconnecting caverns, dungeons and tunnels with vast quantities of jewels, gold bars and other such trinkets liberally scattered about. These boost your overall score or swell your coffers so that you can stock up on extra weapons or lives when you stumble across each level's shop. Each island also has a tavern where Hagar can buy a pint of ale or munch on a chicken leg to top up his energy level or he can gamble his money to increase his wealth still further.

Of course, the locals don't take too kindly such wanton acts of violence and various knights in shining armour and axe-wielding executioners patrol the levels itching to reduce your skull to pancake-like proportions.

To help combat these adversaries, Hagar carries his trusty sword for a spot of hack 'n' slashing and, if things get a bit tough, he can also squat under his shield for some limited protection. As well as these armaments, the 'F' keys access a range of more powerful spears and axes. These come in limited quantities so it's best to use them sparingly until you've amassed enough cash to stock up on extra items from the shops.

After you've collected the requisite amount of jewels from each island, there's an end-of-level bad guy to slay. Level one involves a cliff-top encounter with a marauding army. If you retreat too far, you also run the risk of plunging off the cliff to your doom!

Subsequent levels throw up fire-breathing dragons, gigantic norsemen and assorted other end-of-level nasties.

The most striking thing about the game are the graphics which perfectly capture the flavour of the comic strip. Hagar looks just right and most of his adversaries have been culled straight from the pages of the newspaper strip.

The only thing amiss is the poor quality sound effects. Some dodgy collision detection also lets the side down, but this is compensated for by the maze of interconnecting tunnels and the variety of characters on the loose. It's not the most amazing game of late, but it's a more than competent platform romp.