Spellbound!

One of a series of educational titles from Scetlander, 'Spellbound!' is quite unusual because it is an educational arcade shooter, and not a puzzle or an adventure game.

We play as Hal, who is the American cousin of Henrietta (from 'Hooray for Henrietta' and 'Henrietta's Book of Spells' fame). Henrietta asked us to help her in her dealing with Morgana the Morbid. That witch has given her magical wand to a twisted genius Professor Grime - a typical mad scientist - who has concealed it in his safe locked with five locks. Correspondingly, we are to find five keys on five levels: Underground, Underwater, Downtown, Alaska and Space Base.

The object of the game is to fly (or swim) a helicopter (or a submarine, or a space ship) through levels filled with obstacles and Professor Grime's henchmen: they shoot at us and we shoot at them, and after they die they leave us each a letter that we have to collect in specific order to spell a certain word (displayed as a task before the start of a level). The game features nice graphics and music, and even some voiceovers.