Rainbow Arts/Probe
£8.99 cass, £12.99 disk

You'd think this aged white whiskered hero past adventuring, but the Merlin lookalike wizard is up to his pointed hat in trouble, having got himself stuck in 100 meanie-filled rooms with no hope of escape... or has he?

Yes he has, if only he can find his familiar (magical speak for general dogsbody), a little spherical chappie trapped somewhere in the room. The wiz must leap and bound around the room collecting magical bonus items in order to be able to perform his favourite party pieces. Being a magical chap he can create stone blocks to aid his perambulations. And by collecting bonus objects he can destroy the nasty denizens, teleport himself and do other pretty amazing things.

He must not forget to rescue the sphere if he wants to find his way to the next room where he has to go through the whole thing again. The concept is a simple one, and as is very often the case, the simpler the idea the better the game. It's easy to collect the bonuses and rescue the sphere, at least on the first couple of levels. But the denizens become more and more bloodthirsty, making it increasingly difficult to reach your pal. Spherical is a great romp through lots of dank rooms filled with nasty creatures: buy it now.

MARK [89%]

Spherical is simply an excellent game. It has everything that you could want and more. The graphics are small, but detailed with the occasional appearance of big monsters that fill half the screen! just avoiding the nasties and collecting the treasure would make an excellent arcade game, but there are the added puzzles to give an extra boost of addictiveness. You have to guide a ball on the screen to the 'IN' icon. This isn't as easy as it sounds because once it drops there's no getting it up again (choor!). Quick reflexes and an I.Q. of 2,000,000 are needed to succeed for just a couple of rounds (that counts out Corky Caswell!). Luckily, for the pure genius who gets really far (or the cheat - like me!), there are code words for certain levels which take out the frustration of starting right from the beginning again. Spherical is fabulous, well worth a smash!
NICK [91%]

Rainbow Arts
£8.99 cass/£12.99 disk
Reviewer: David Wilson

Are you fatigued by fatuous fighting games? Shattered by all those mindless shoot-'em-ups? Ooh no, missus! Well, don't get hispherical! (Groan! Ed) 'Cos here, for a refreshing change, is one of those games that places its emphasis more on the ol' grey matter between your ears than the red button on the end of your joystick. Yep, it's Spherical!

It's big, it's colourful, it's got lots of little wobbly bits, it's from German software house Rainbow Arts and it's been programmed by Probe Software, the guys behind Firebird's Mr Heli. It's also similar to Repton Mania, which Marcus rated a hot 88° in our June issue, but, whereas that game boasted its cutsie croc in casual wear, Spherical leans more towards the Gauntlet-type scenario and characters.

Basically, you play this sort of wizard chap. You and a friend have ventured into this castle when suddenly. FULATCH!, your chum gets turned into a sphere! Blimey! A hasty exit is recommended, but things aren't quite that simple 'cos you have to clear the way for your rotund amigo to roll clear of the traps and pitfalls between you and the exit!

Your wizardly powers enable you to add or subtract bricks and you can also collect various icons, including good and bad potions, gems and even a Strider-type droid thing that circles your sprite and kills the monsters! There are 80 (!) levels in all, each comprising a single screen of increasing complexity, not to mention a secret extra ten levels which you can access via a codeword received from other icons! if you choose the two player game, then you won't recognise it, 'cos guess what!? There are only 80 completely new levels in that mode too! And, true to form, these are cunningly designed so that they can only be completed by both players co-operating! (I knew all those mornings spent watching Sesame Street would come in handy one day!) Sometimes you have to get the sphere to the exit, other times you have to kill a monster. These can be huge, and explode quite nicely when bashed over the bonce several times by the aforementioned droid!

But what you're really going to need here is quick thinking! At the start of a level you have 20 seconds before the sphere starts rolling. The first thing you must do is to ensure that the sphere is safe. If you're at the bottom of the screen, and the ball is poised over a trap at the top, then some bloomin' nifty block-building is required el pronto! (Fortunately, there's an option for you to practice this!) As the levels progress, there are bigger monsters and more complicated problems to pit your wits against. You'll get skull-shaped doors that need to be removed by collecting the appropriate coloured key icon, and all manner of energy-zapping creatures to impede your passage. (Oo-er! Ed) You've got a long way to go and absolutely yonks of puzzling gameplay ahead of you. And with the very different two player interactive option it's like two games for the price of one, er, too, so you'll get your money's worth and no mistake!

And that, in a nutshell, is that! A wizard game about wizards, balls, monster squashing (or blocking) and problem solving. If your mind is getting jealous of all the exercise your trigger finger is getting, then check out Spherical!

Cripes! You'd better look sharpish 'cos here comes...

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO PUZZLE GAMES

Yep, readers, looks like it's time once again for another one of those Complete Guide thingies. This issue, for your delight and delectation, we thought we'd take a peek at the more puzzley sort of games. Y'know - puzzle games - those sort of weird ones where you have to use a bit of the ol' grey matter to solve, erm, puzzles and things. And who better to clasp you by the hand and drag you through the world of the mind-boggling than YS's resident 'heart-throb' RICH PELLEY. Hurrah!

BUT FIRST... THE RATINGS

As usual, the normal rating system seems a bit crap in these circumstances, so here's a different one instead.

FIENDISHNESS
How complex and difficult to finish are the puzzles? Are they a complete bummer to complete, or could you do it with your little finger stuck, er, wherever you want to stick it?

LACK OF SLEEP FACTOR
Will it have you coming back for more (and more) or will a few games be enough? (Who knows?)

PULL YOUR HAIR OUT FACTOR
Is the game easy to get into, or do you have to spend ages looking up various keys, and working out what's going on all the time? (The lower the mark the better the gameplay in this case.)

VARIATION
Are the puzzles varied, or are they all the same? (Er, obvious, really.)

Okay, so I admit it - I'm crap at puzzle games. Come to think of it, I'm crap at most games really. And I'm not in a particularly good mood today either 'cos I've got a sneaky suspicion that this guide thingy is going to take absolutely ages to write. Even though Matt has reassured me "It won't take long" and Jonathan has informed me (much to my surprise) that "Honest, it'll really be a lot of fun to do" I'm a little dubious. Still, let's get on with it and see what happens, shall we?

For a start, I can see one big problem staring me in the face almost immediately. I mean, what exactly makes a puzzle game a puzzle game, eh? One man's puzzle game may another one's arcade adventure be or, um, something really. We've had countless arguments here in the office over it already (and for some reason I always seem to lose). For instance, Matt thought Arkanoid, Batty and the like might almost count, while Jonathan firmly disagreed. (In fact, if Jonathan had had his way, Tetris would be 'the only true puzzler ever written' and this would be the shortest Complete Guide on record!) Seeing as this is my feature though, and I'm writing it, everybody's going to have to agree with me!

And what is my definition? Well, it's fairly loose really. It's anything where you have to try to work out some sort of (perhaps totally abstract) mental problem against a time limit. Most great puzzle games are based on one very simple initial idea, which is then perhaps spiced up by slicking in lots of different ways that you can earn bonuses, die, get extra weapons or abilities (if it's a weapons sort of game) and so on. It's the simple initial idea that really counts though - if you haven't got that, you ain't got much really.

So what sort of puzzle games have we got here, then? Well, lots of different ones really - there are games where you must arrange blocks, make pictures, blow up balls, collect keys, and do masses more equally weird and wonderful puzzley things.

One good thing though is the scope - unlike in most areas of Speccy programming, with puzzle games you sometimes actually get a degree of originality. The games I've covered here are all good ones, and all still fairly easily available and - would you believe it? - no two of them are the same! (Well, no three of them at least.) And, erm, cripes, looks like I've run out of things to say. So, um, I'll stop waffling and get on with it, shall I?

THE FIRST PUZZLE GAME IN SPECCY HISTORY

Um, er, um. Now you re asking. Turning to the very first issue of Your Spectrum (ie Your Sinclair in disguise), I find one lurking in the first few pages. Traxx from Quicksilver is its name, and what seems to happen is that you move around this little grid thing collecting squares. Fun, eh? (Alright, I admit it. Of course there's no way that could be the first commercially available puzzle game, but it's the first I could come up with. Sorry and all that.) Anyway, on with the show.

NB Erm, actually, before we start, I'd just like to clear something up. You may notice that all the marks for the following games are quite high - there don't seem to be any crap ones. Now this isn't 'cos I'm a great puzzles fan or anything (in truth I hate them all) - it's just that unfortunately all the ones I've picked have been quite original and good. And keeping up my reviewer's credibility, I have to be fair. Hence the high marks.

Spherical
Rainbow Arts
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

How would you feel if your best friend had just been turned into a ball? Precisely. And the last thing you would want is for him to roll down a pit or something, isn't it? So the best thing to do would be to walk about in front of him and build him a pathway by removing and placing blocks to, him to roll along, yes? Okay, so everything looks rather like Solomon's Key to begin with, but begin playing and you'll soon realise that it's a completely different kettle of pickled herrings altogether.

For starters, there's loads of icons and things which you can collect en route to help. And there's a natty two-player mode, which gives you a completely different set of screens which can only be completed if the two players cooperate with each other. Sheeks!

And as if all that wasn't reason enough to sellotape Spherical to your tape deck and leave it there, the game also features some particularly tasty graphics, packed with colour and jumbo-sized nasties to dispatch with a stream of carefully-aimed projectiles.

Another good 'un, proving that puzzles are where it's at.

AND FINALLY...

There we have it! As I predicted (and Matt and Jonathan got totally wrong) it took me absolutely blooming ages. And most of that time was spent arguing about what a puzzle game actually is and what qualifies and what doesn't (which is one reason why we don't have a giant list of all the ones ever made - we just couldn't agree what they were!).

Next month - Flight Sims. (Something everyone can agree on.) Hurrah!

Label: Rainbow Arts
Author: Probe
Price: £8.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Spherical is like a cross between Manic Miner and Mousetrap. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It involves a wizard (or two) pegging around a huge number of screens, constructing more and more clever ways to steer the path of a rolling ball into a strategically placed box at the bottom of the screen.

Let me explain. Each screen features a counter. The second the screen appears, the counter will, er, begin to count down. When it reaches zero, a big ball somewhere in the top region of the screen will be released from its starting position and will fall or roll - depending on its surroundings - down the screen. It's essential to use this lead time effectively. While the easy, early screens will allow you to dither around a bit, and the ball will roll easily no matter what you do, the later levels will put a sneaky trap right in front of the ball and it you're not quick enough to get it, you're stuffed.

Affecting the descent of the ball is far from complicated, but it can be bloody difficult. Each wizard has at his disposal an infinite number of building blocks. He can put them anywhere except immediately below him. The trick is to set the blocks in a pattern so as to allow the ball either a complete run into the target box or set up a series of containment areas and gradually channel the ball the right way.

This all sounds a bit heavy going and dull, doesn't it? Well, it's not as bad as all that. It certainly has the appeal of puzzley things. Mind you, it's the sort of appeal that can fade pretty sharpish.

Spherical looks pretty poor for the first twenty screens or so, comprising pretty tiny sprites and not an abundance of swooshy animation. While there is colour all around, nothing seems especially well drawn.

Later on, however, the graphics seem to have come from another dimension entirely. There are huge dragons and beasts and statues and structures; all beautifully drawn and tricky to negotiate.

Remember the Mirrorsoft game, Tetris? Well, it's got exactly the same grab factor as that.

There are clusters of jewels hanging in the air. Each awards you bonus points.

Movement around the screen involves bouncing off blocks (whether already in position or laid by yourself).

And that's your lot. The further you get. the more outrageously tricky the screen layouts become and the tougher it is to stop the ball from becoming thoroughly trapped in a crevice. If you're desperately keen on action-puzzle solving, then this is one for you. If you're after anything else, forget it.