The game is based around 4x10 grid of squares. Under the squares lie simple coloured sketches (e.g. ghosts and puppets) which are accompanied by pleasant well-constructed short tunes such as Ghostbusters and Puppet On A String).

On my pre-release copy of the game, the only instructions given were for keyboard control of the pointer arrow which is used for square selection. Hopefully the end product will be more information as it took me about half an hour to work out exactly what was going on.

I eventually ascertained that the idea of the game is to guess the identity of a five letter word that is hidden beneath the grid. The game is based on the old "Matching Pairs" game and is played by either one or two players. The mystery word is gradually revealed as the squares matched. There are two wildcards that can be matched with any picture to make a pair. If a player fails to make a match, the pictures disappear and therefore a good memory is essential. At the bottom of the screen, a running score is kept of players' progress. The first player to guess correctly is greeted with the tune Congratulations and "Ok punk, you got it!"

The concept of the game is quite clever, playability however, could have been improved had a joysticks option been provided, as it is always awkward for two people to use the keyboard at the same time. Unfortunately, I did find after a while, that use of the same pictures and tunes every game began to wear a bit thin and consequently the novelty soon wore off.

To sum up, Flip is a nice idea but not very addictive and is the sort of game which is played for a couple of days and then forgotten. It may prove most popular with children of primary school age and maybe this is the direction any marketing should be aimed. The game does have educational value as it requires good sight, sound and memory co-ordination.

David Glew