Spellcasting 301 : Spring Break Legend Entertainment / Accolade - RRP œ29.99 (Text/graphics adventure for the PC) Reviewed by Neil Shipman Sun, sea, sand and scantily-clad, sexy stunners star in the latest of the Spellcasting series. The day Ernie Eaglebeak has been dreaming of has finally arrived as he and the lads from Sorcerer University take off for Fort Naughtytail to whoop it up on their Spring Break. After checking in at the Hotel Plaza it's time to head for the beach and check out the talent. But before the fun can begin a few hunks from SU's rival school of learning, the St. Weinersburg Academy of Magic, turn up and threaten to spoil things. A weight- lifting contest follows in which both groups of students set out to show off their prowess. However, this just leads to a slanging match which is only brought to a halt by The Judge! This gorgeous female suggests a series of contests to establish who are the Kings of the Beach. She will keep an eye on events, award points and keep the score. Of course, you readily agree and, over the next few days, you will find yourself competing in contests like sandcastle building, surfing, suntanning, volleyball, drinking and fighting. The adventure is split into thirteen chapters representing the different events. Some of these must be completed successfully before you can move on to the next while others can almost be ignored for the time being if you find yourself totally stuck. As well as solving puzzles and gathering items to help you win a particular contest you will need to carry out a few errands for the Guild of Sorcerers who inhabit the local lighthouse. This is how you can raise your sorcery level from an initial 3 right up to the top level of 6, thereby giving you the ability to cast more powerful spells. One of the spells changes the effect of the others so there are really twice as many as it may at first seem. Some spell boxes are easily found, others only acquired after figuring out a series of problems. One or two can even be bought. If you find yourself running out of cash you can always try your luck at one of the three games on offer in the casino or, alternatively, pawn some objects. Legend Entertainment stick with the tried and tested interface used in all their adventures plus special ones like those first seen in Frederik Pohl's Gateway. These come into use for your magic carpet ride at the start, the gambling games and transactions in the pawn shop as well as one or two other things. The map - which is one of the options for the top right-hand window - is a simple box and interconnecting line affair of the sort you would draw for yourself. I found this a great help for getting around because the playing area is quite extensive. The graphics, music and sound effects are of the same quality as those seen in Gateway. As you would expect from a beachside setting there is a lot a bare flesh on view but, even in 'Naughty' mode, there is no complete nudity. All the women are exceptionally well-endowed - and the wet t-shirt contest has to be seen to be believed! - but the level of titillation provided by some of the pictures is really only about the same as watching Baywatch on television. In any event, Meretzky deals with the sexual content of the game in his typical hilarious over-the-top style so that it's difficult to see anyone other than an arch-feminist taking offence. His humour shows throughout the whole adventure and the idea of bringing in the Four Seahorses of the Apocalypse is a stroke of brilliance. I felt that this third game was the most difficult in the series so far with a lot of excellent puzzles and a great ending. If you finish without a maximum score you are told in which contest(s) you could have done better so you can then go back and try to find what you have missed. Devotees of the series will be sorry to see that this looks like being the penultimate adventure as the next is entitled Spellcasting 401: The Graduation Ball. But what might Meretzky have got lined up for Ernie Eaglebeak once his student days are over, I wonder?