Tengen/Domark/Oxford Mobius
£14.99 cass, £19.99 disk

After the success of the Trivial Pursuit games, Domark now launch Pictionary, another board game adaptation with a choice of one to four player modes or, for party occasions, up to four teams. As the title might suggest, this is a 'guess the picture's meaning/draw a word' game.

The game can be played two ways: on your tod with the computer drawing the clues for you to guess, or in team mode with one person as artist with the team mates guessing. A board appears with squares in five colours representing five subject categories, People, Object, Action, Difficult and All Player. Whichever mode you're playing you start by clicking the cursor on the 'box of cards' icon top right of the screen.

The computer picks a question and that corresponds to the square you are currently on, for example Object. If the computer is the artist it will draw the subject for you to guess. If you're the budding Picasso a code number appears and you must consult one of the subject cards included in the pack and decide how to get the word across on screen using Pictionary's graphics package. It's been specially designed for ease of use, but obviously at the mercy of your talents! Try getting St Tropez across in pictures...

When on your own, and you think you've divined what the computer is drawing, you may check how right you've been by tapping the space bar to get the answer. You're then asked by the computer whether you answered correctly (and no cheating). If yes, a die is thrown and your 'counter' is moved around the board - and another round begins. Answer wrongly when in a team and control of the board goes to the next team/player.

The graphics package on this game maybe foolproof, but my artistic talents weren't up to it. But despite this I greatly enjoyed playing Pictionary, although playing in a group is recommended for maximum fun. Laughing at other people's drawing efforts distracts from one's own deficiencies. The game is very colourful and the graphics package only limited by the user's imagination. Buy it if you're into jolly collective fun amongst friends, it's ideal for Christmas!

MARK [86%]

This is great fun. You can spend hours just sitting and watching the computer draw different phrases, play with your friends or have a go at drawing yourself. Playing with friends is the best because you can have a good laugh at their drawings. The idea behind the game is a simple but totally addictive one. There have been mixed views about Pictionary in the Towers (Mel from art department thinks its rubbish because you can't shoot anything!), but I like it and I recommend it to anyone. Good wholesome family fun!
NICK [78%]

Domark
£14.99 cass/£19.99 disk
Reviewer: Andy Ide

If in doubt, doodle. That's what I always say. Sitting in a Neanderthal cave with only a pesky pesky sheep for company? Get doodlin'! (And they did!) Got 9,761 nuclear warheads heading straight for your key defence installations and major cities? Get doo... (Whoops, too late.)

Yup, a doodle a day helps you work rest and play. And, to and behold, if Domark hasn't come along to satisfy our very needs. Much to the relief of school books everywhere, Pictionary is a board game conversion in which you scribble away to your heart's content, drawing descriptive pictures of words, which your partner has to decipher.

So how do you play it? Well, first, to all the dimmocks out there, I have only one thing to say. Please take your felt tips AWAY from the TV screen. Right, now throw them away, you won't be needing them. You see, Pictionary comes complete with a nifty art package, needing only the addition of your fingers and a keyboard to originate the most splendiferous of graphic designs. (Mind you, you pay through the nose for it. Just look at those prices!! £14.99 and £19.99?!? Are we being scrooged or what??)

The way it works is that around your 'drawing board' are various 'palette' icons. The ones on the left are the 'dominant' commands from which you choose, among other things, your straight lines, circles, boxes and bends. These determine the size and shape of your image. The ones on the right give you thicknesses of line and (if you want) how many dots you'd like it to be made up of, while across the bottom are seven types of shading with which you can fill in your objects.

All fine and dandy, I hear you say, but what about the game? Well, there are two ways to play - either let the computer have all the fun by drawing the pics itself so you guess what they mean (obviously a variation away from the original board game), or the DIY (Doodle-It-Yourself) version. No prizes for guessing which is the crap one (it's the one for which the computer does the drawing itself, of course). Why's it so rubbish? Well, it's too easy to cheat for a start. Once you've sussed out what the computer is trying to draw, all you have to do is tell it to stop the clock, watch it complete the sketch, then wail for it to throw up a word, which you have to reply 'Yes' or 'No' to. Since (when I played it) the word it threw up was always the correct answer (so your answer was obviously always going to be 'Yes') I think you'll agree we're not exactly witnessing the lauded art of Hitchcockian dramatic tension here. Still, the good news is it's loads better when you're playing with friends. At least then you get the opportunity of kicking them up the bum when they cheat. And even when they don't (if that's your bag).

Right, now on to the 'Doodle-It-Yourself' version, and it's loads more interesting. I was going to explain exactly how this works, but it would get far, far too complicated (though once you're actually doing it, it becomes a lot more obvious). You need at least four people - you and a partner (who to identify the pictures you draw) plus a couple of opponents. Once you've got this many together, though, it's difficult to see what you gain by playing the computer version of Pictionary. I mean, wouldn't a traditional board be better? That way you can all sit around in a circle instead of huddling in front of a TV screen, and you wouldn't have to keep explaining to Granny what keys to press.

In fact, mastering the keyboard commands can impose a degree of cat-strangling frustration while you're learning (which, in my case, took blooming ages). The reason traditional board versions of things like Pictionary are so fun is because they're all rather spur-of-the-moment and jolly and communal, but introduce A COMPUTER and not only does it take an age to load, but half the people won't be able to work out how to play it anyway.

But all is not lost! There's still the Practice option, which - unburdened by time limits - gives you free reign to draw pretty pictures ad infinitum. There's rather a neat art program in here somewhere, so if you are a dab hand at sketching there's no reason why you can't go and create some pretty spiffing and complex computer images. Get yourself a printer and you're laughing.

So, what's the verdict? Well, it's a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde this one, and quite an expensive one at that. I don't think it works well as a game (not user-friendly enough) but if it sounds like your cup of cha then its appeal might be limitless. And as an arts package you can't fault it (Except it's not in colour. Which is hardly a fault at all, actually.)

For all budding Rolf Harris's, the perfect gift.

REPLAY

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Not that pirates have anything to do with Replay this month of course. But we're like that.

The Hit Squad
£3.99 cassette
061 832 6633
Reviewer: Linda Barker

Oh dearie dearie me, what a complete and utter waste of time. I'm sorry if I sound a bit negative, but I've just spent part of my afternoon playing the computer version of Pictionary. It was a stupid thing to do, I could have been doodling away on the back of an envelope and I would have contributed more to the world's pot of common knowledge. Harumph! Anyway, that's enough moaning for at least another paragraph, let's have a look at this Pictionary thing.

Pictionary the board game was, I am reliably informed, all the rage a few years back. It was the sort of game that misguided parents bought their children in a desperate bid to get them to play something educational. It was, in fact, a drunk yuppie's game. You can just imagine the box being bought to the dining table and dropped amongst the wine glasses and mint wrappers. An hour later, the party would have broken up, the Pictionary cards would be strewn all over the floor and none of the guests would be on speaking terms. That's what kind of board game Pictionary was.

Pictionary the computer game is even worse. At first it looks as if you're going to have a bit of fun as the initial screen is set out like a boardgame and there's a die and then it gets on to the picturedrawing bit. Phooey! This is where it really starts falling apart. You have to guess what picture the computer's drawn, you don't even have to tap in an answer. The computer prints the word and then asks whether you got it right or wrong. You could be honest, but what's the point. I really cannot see why anybody would buy this game. If you like the idea of drawing then you'd be a million times better off with any art package you can get hold of.

This really is the most banal thing I've played in ages if you're considering buying this game and playing on your own against the computer - don't. It's a stupid thing to do. Even drunken yuppies won't enjoy this one - by the time it's finished loading, they'll have fallen asleep.

A truly useless game.

Label: Domark
Author: In-house
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Alison Skeat

Having never actually played Pictionary, the board game meself, I didn't have a clue how to play this latest offering from those chaps at Domark. Nevertheless, I'd been informed by those who had that it was a right laugh and provides hours of giggles.

If you haven't played Pictionary either let me tell you how to play. You have a board with a track of coloured squares, each with a letter representing an subject - P for Person/Place/Animal, O for Object, A for Action, D for Difficult and AP for All Play (any kind of word).

Chuck the dice and move your counter to one of the coloured squares. Pick a card with a list of words on it and then draw your subject word within a time limit. If your team guesses the word correctly you get another go. Get from the start of the board to the finish before the other team and you've won.

Easy or wot? The computer version works in almost the same way. You can play it One player where the computer draws you piccies and you try to guess what they are by calling out your answer.

Once you've shouted the answer the computer then asks if you got it right or wrong and you have to enter Yes or No. So if it's just you and the computer and no one else to keep an eye on you, you can ruddy well cheat can't you - "oh yes I got that one completely right, another go for me, I think". Surely it would be a better idea if you could actually key in your answer, call me a moany old bag but it seems to make sense to me.

So that's the one player stuff out of the way. When you play with two teams (or three or four, if you like) it's time to don your artists smock, stick a paintbrush in the corner of ya gob and draw the piccies yourself. This is where things get a little tricky.

You see the game incorporates a wee drawing package and you have to use the cursor keys along with a palette of different lines and blobby bit to create your masterpiece. The problem is you have to do all your creating within two minutes, which is pretty difficult as it takes at least a day to master the drawing program. Not much scope for spontaneous fun... Dwayne: "Wanna play Pictionary Tel?" Tel: "Whoor yeah Dwayne", Dwayne: "Well borrow my copy, learn how to use the drawing bit and I'll see you in three weeks time"

To be fair, Pictionary does have a practice mode, which lets you spend as much time as you like sharpening up your pencil skills, so I suggest you master this first before attempting the game proper. So, what more can I say? Pictionary, is good fun and costs a lot less that the actual board game that weighs in at a hefty £20, but it's a lot flipping easier to sling the board on the living room rug and crack out the pencils, me thinks.

Label: Hit Squad
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

Do you consider yourself an artist then? Well there's only one way to find out - see what others think of your sketches by playing Pictionary, the word drawing game, guaranteed to separate the Rolf Harris's from the kangaroos (and worse!)

Basically Pictionary as a board game is a bit of a waste of money. OK, there's nothing really wrong with the game, it's actually a very good idea. However all it consists of is a set of cards, a board, an egg timer, a couple of pencils and some paper - yet the whole thing costs twenty seven quid in my local WH Smiths. With a bit of imagination you could make it yourself for well under a fiver, and now you can get this version for four quid!

In Pictionary you draw pictures to represent words from the following categories: Person/Place/Animal. Object, Action, Difficult Words, and All Play (which can be any sort of word). First of all draw a card, in a similar way to trivial pursuit. which must be kept a secret. You must then illustrate the word on this card to the best of your ability using Pictionary's on-screen art package. Then gesticulate wildly and hope your team-mate can guess it within the specified time limit... Or else your team loses the advantage and the opposition takes over. 'All Play' cards allow any team to guess what a drawing represents.

Pictionary is a fun game for all the family. As a board game it is very social but everyone doesn't need to be on top of each other. Unfortunately this is not a feature of the computer version as everyone hos to see the some monitor. This version does however come complete with a nifty little computer art package and there's the positive advantage of not having to tidy up the cards and look for dice under the sofa when you're finished.

GARTH:
It takes a lot of practice to get fast and good at using Pictionary's drawing package but you'll have a lot of fun doing so. In fact I found it much easier to play the game this way as opposed to the real thing, my pencil and paper drawing ability was never one of my greatest assets.

£19.99dk, £14.99cs

The first thing I expected to find on loading up this version was an inferior doodle package, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. All of the functions available are easily accessed with either the pointer or a single key press. The disadvantage of this and other 8-bit versions is the lack of a mouse for drawing. I tried playing with the keyboard controls, and to be quite honest, drawing anything other than very simple shapes proved to be a long-winded and painful process. It is still quite fun to play with the computer drawing the piccies, although if you have the cassette version be prepared to wait during the frequent tape loads as the next block of piccies is got into memory.