Game review: Medieval Games - Nintendo Wii

As a gamer of a certain age – Binatone football anyone? Youngsters go Google! – I quite like odd games and this has a great deal of appeal for me.

A few glasses of pinot noir in and I’ll give most things a go and so it was, or should that be ‘once upon a time ...’, that I tried Medieval Games and lo ’twas great fun.

You are thrown into a cartoon world where heroic, big-chinned knights battle it out with swords and bows and for afters have a go at a fire-breathing dragon.

Knights not up your cobbled thoroughfare? Why not be a princess, a comely witch, a bearded wizard or a jester.

Whatever your choice of character you, and up to three friends, get to take part in a range of medieval activities including the aforementioned sword fighting and jousting but also archery, horse racing and ... err ... pig catching.

In a codpiece (geddit?) there are three modes - tournament, storybook, and the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin free play.

In tournament mode you are pitted against other players or the computer in a series of challenges.

Storybook mode is more structured, with a giant pop-up book (shouldn’t it have been a scroll?) explaining the back story.

You move through the game as if you were on a board, with the roll of a virtual die deciding where you end up and what challenge you face.

As this a Wii game you get to prance about your living room and wave your Wii controller around with as much vigour as you can manage as it mirrors your sword, guides your lance or aims your arrows.

In short this is tongue-in-cheek fun and ideal fodder for the Wii. It may not look a million groats but who cares when it is this much fun.

Ten pin bowling, tennis and baseball are for wimps. Have at thee ...

Verdict: 8 out of 10 - Swords at the ready, this is medieval fun for the digital age.