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Booly is one of those quirky little French puzzle games that leaves you scratching your head at first and then mapping the sweat from your brow later. The weirdest thing about Booly is the concept.

You're faced with a board containing an arrangement of squares linked together. Each square can be changed to a different colour - the idea is to make every piece on the board the same colour. On the first level that colour is grey. The problem is, when you change a piece, you also change its neighbours...

This can get very confusing, but basically it's like a two-dimensional Rubik's Cube. Each action causes a reaction. You have to figure out a way to cause reactions in such a way that the finished result is a board of one colour.

It gets very touch very quickly. The squares can each be connected to up to four others... it would probably all be very easy if you just sat down and thought about it...

Unfortunately, you have to play Booly up against a very strict time limit. This really gets the pulse racing and on later, harder, levels the time limit is very tough.

The graphics in Booly are very nice, given the basic game concept. The artists at Loriciel have pulled out all the stops and given each level a different look.

Booly is a challenging addition to the puzzle genre. It combines fierce mental gymnastics with arcade-style pressure, and yet the concept is simple enough to pick up in seconds.

It doesn't take long to work out what you've got to do, but a hell of a lot longer to actually do it! The plot's simple, but very nicely presented.

Reach the second level

Graphics 85%
Attractive, colourful and quite varied.

Sonics 50%
Not really very much going on in this department.

Grab Factor 89%
Instantly appealling and immediately frustrating.

Staying Power 90%
Tons of boards and lots of levels mean bags of fun.

Overall 88%
An infuriating puzzle game - simple in concept but very nicely executed.