Rise Of The Argonauts

FOR me, Jason and the Argonauts brings back memories of giant gold statues, fighting skeletons and a dodgy bloke playing King Neptune from the film of the same name enlivened by Ray Harryhausen's special effects.

Fans of the film will be disappointed to find that Rise of the Argonauts doesn't follow the movie's plot - although the developer has extensively mined Greek mythology to build a robust roster of baddies to fight.

There's a lot of dialogue to plough through before Jason gets down to fighting, but at least the controls are smooth when the sword-play does begin.

If there's a problem then it's the camera, which often focuses too closely on the action for comfort, leaving Jason open to sneak attacks which are virtually impossible to defend. The camera is mapped to a thumb-stick, but, in the heat of a battle, there's sometimes too much going on to re-orientate your view. There's a handy up-grade system based on the different gods of Greek mythology. Everything from different swords to new armour is available.

The graphics are passable and the soundtrack top notch, but I'd have liked to see a more ambitious game than the standard hack 'em up we have here. You won't feel fleeced if you buy Rise of the Argonauts, but the perfect gameof-the-film is still to be made.