Now you don't have to be a cream cake-loving agorophobic from Cheltenham called Doreen to take part in the 'Crystal Maze'. Everyone can pretend with Jewels Of The Oracle.

Sunsoft has looked to its only hit of last year, Myst, in a bid to capture the Saturn puzzle market, whose devotees are so rarely considered. But whereas Myst was a deeply plotted work of fiction, two years in the making, Sunsoft's own imitation, Jewels Of The Oracle, is pared down to 30 abstract puzzles by themselves. And many of them, using symbol tiles or primitive mechanisms, look straight out of that Channel Four adult adventure playground we mentioned earlier.

A collection of puzzles in a "Myst-style" setting.

You can always walk away from a puzzle unfinished, and return to the main cavern, but it will be reset when you return to it. The later selection of puzzles come when you've completed the first set.

1. Ruma
   Inspired by an African puzzle game, move all the stones into the large Ruma from the smaller pits.
2. Gears
   Twelve balls to lie on six wheels, but none must be in direct opposition.
3. Pegs
   Reverse the side of the 'locusts' by jumping over pegs into empty spaces.
4. Scarab
   Use foresight to guide every ball to the exit with the scarab. Very tricky.
5. Pairs
   These ten objects share paired relationships, but the bases of these are a mystery.
6. Tiles
   All the edges must match, but it seems impossible to achieve.

The gems are initially scattered to thirty dislocated chambers and the way to access them is to peer into a mysterious pool in the main cavern. There are switches around the pool which create a path through the pool to the puzzle, a vague outline of which is shown through the murk.

To "help" you, there is the Oracle, an advisor who seems to be a family relation of Eric Cantona. If you prompt him for help on a nasty teaser you'll get pronouncements like: "Explore beyond those obvious steps that rule before your eyes". Oh, that's much better then!

Jewels Of The Oracle would drive 95% of the population barmy, and unless you are a member of Mensa, I would steer well clear. The game's use of FMV makes it appear superficially within the same bracket as D and Myst, but those games were stories with, in reality, a gentle puzzle element. In contrast, Jewels Of The Oracle's puzzles are cold, abstract and hard.

This doesn't make it a bad game - even the gloomy, cruddy graphics don't make it a bad game. Smart arses will love it, but if you're not a smart arse...

Blimey! This is the Crystal Maze, except without the bald guy and people shouting "I'm coming out!" all the time. The puzzles do have a certain attraction if you want to stretch your grey matter, but your average beat-'em-up fan will most likely find it far too cerebral.

Some of the games do seem to be based on 'popular' board games like Downfall and there is no reason why you couldn't get the same enjoyment from one of those puzzle books you always used to take on holiday when you were a kid.

As Gus says, Jewels Of The Oracle is for Mensa-standard IQs only.

The innovation isn't in doubt, but assuming there is a Saturn audience for this kind of mental punishment is rather optimistic.