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Starting life off as a Horace title (yes the very Horace who once went skiing, got hungry and squished some arachnids), this game looked to resurrect one of gaming history's earliest mascots. Due to some copyright claims, the authors decided to create a mascot of their own to replace the poor old blue blob and introduce the world to Crowley – a little devil of a fella. He is now the main protagonist in this globe-trotting version of the much-beloved Tetris.

Tetris, eh? Unless you've been living on Mars since 1984, you don't need much of an introduction to this game. First made way back in 1984 by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov, it then went on to be a global phenomenon. It was ported onto every gaming format known to man, none more famous than the Nintendo Gameboy version.

It was a masterstroke of genius to have this handheld device being bundled with their version of Tetris. It sold in excess of 30 million copies and is one of Nintendo's biggest sellers ever (only to be ousted by Pokemon Red/Blue).

Not only was the game ubiquitous with this beautiful handheld console, the music was just as iconic. Hirokazu Tanaka's rendition of the Russian Folk tune Korobeiniki became synonymous with the Tetris game from then on. Needless to say, it remains just as popular today as it ever was. It's on every other gaming system, so why not have it on the Spectrum Next?

The game's beauty lies in its simplicity; the player is presented with a series of falling shaped blocks (tetrominoes) and as they cascade towards the bottom of the screen, they can be rotated in order to lay them so that it creates rows of straight lines. For every perfect straight line created, the player is rewarded with points and the line is destroyed. This in turn moves all the other blocks to move down one position. The game becomes one of quick reflexes, forward thinking and survival. The top of the screen shows the next shape to appear after the current one. This allows for some versatile and inventive strategy.

The player may choose not to use the current block in an obvious place as the proceeding one can be cleverly used in conjunction with that one. If the player allows for the blocks to stack up to the top of the play area, then it's game over.

There are three modes in this version, each of which offer variation in the game play.

Firstly, there's World Tour which allows for level progression. For every ten lines created, Crowley hops on a plane off to the next location. He begins his journey, quite naturally, in Mother Russia before catching the red eye to Paris. The next mode is Endless; this is exactly what it says on the tin and never ends until the player cocks up.

This is the one for high score junkies. Lastly is the fun-filled Challenge Mode. Here the player has to contend with a puzzle-like element to their game as there are preplaced blocks in the play area which prove to be very challenging when trying to create a line.

There are two types of people: those who like Tetris and those who don't. I personally can get into the zone with it and this is a welcome addition to the growing amount of software for the Next.

The mechanics are as tight as you'd expect in a game of this nature. I found there were few accidental placings of blocks and any faults came down to my inept skills at the game. The graphics are lovely and colourful and do the real game justice. There's even a Gameboy aesthetic mode!

I love the bezel surrounding the play area, it's full of brilliant Crowley graphics and landmarks of the country the player is visiting to tie in with the world tour theme. Musically, the game has an abundance of tunes. The AY proudly presents a plethora of remixes of the various national anthems of each country visited.

Shame it's no longer Horace, but that's understandable and this Crowley character oozes charm. And, of course, there's nothing new or even slightly different compared to the multitude of other Tetris ports.

Whether you love it or you loathe it, Tetris has found its way onto the Next. It's a timeless and rewarding puzzler. Sometimes that's all a player is looking for some evenings.