One More Wall Of Bricks

Old favourites tend to die only to be resurrected a couple of years later. While the scrolling text on the high-score table tries its best to convince you that you are saving the space/time continuum, this is yet another version of Breakout for the Archimedes.

Control of your trusty bat is by mouse only and you will need to develop a swift hand movement to return a deflected ball successfully because the mouse sensitivity is not controllable.

Each screen has its own title and unique mosaic of multi-coloured bricks to hack away at.

The ball glides across the embellished backgrounds with flicker-free ease and bounces off objects at unusual angles.

The shade of the brick donates whether it will vanish on impact, or merely darken a little before disappearing after another hit. Some hues of block are indestructible and will block your path as you fight to reach the remaining rectangles.

Random capsules descend from the minced masonry - catch them before they disappear and each will affect the gameplay. Some are beneficial and others are not - that trick of reversing the controls I find extremely irritating.

I rather like the sticky bat which offers a little time in which to aim your projectile, while the laser capsule is vital to complete certain levels. Other capsules widen the bat, excite or dull the ball's speed, or build a temporary fence to save you all those volleying dashes - this is a great option when coupled with the multi-ball effect, by the way you only have to hit the white ball.

Sets of four bopping aliens provide a relentless cabaret as they appear in various positions on the screen and then dance back and forth, sending your best shots astray.

It is worthwhile taking a little time to shoot at them, as they deflect the ball disastrously in addition to being difficult to aim around. An editor is provided in case you tire of the action. Flexing your artistic talent you can order ranks of bricks as you wish, finished arrangements being titled and set against a textured background.

Options such as copying, swapping, cutting and pasting are all available.

Strangely, all screens can only be saved as one datafile and on the game disc.

If your designs ovewrite the original you can retrieve it using the default screens icon.

This is a very limiting approach and means that it is impossible to swap home-designed screens with your friends.

The print option does little more that drop basic text screen infor mation to the printer - a screen dump would have been more acceptable.

Sound is where Brixx! scores highest. Sampled messages are relayed each time you begin play or are returned to the first screen.

You can kill sound and music, but there is no sanity-saving skip level option. Despite the niggles, Brixx! proves that the simplest concepts are sometimes the best.

For a little addictive fun, you could do worse.

Matthew Ridd