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Flippo, a small round creature who could easily pass as an orange in a crowd, is the star of the brill new game from Hewson, Maze Mania. As you might have guessed from the screen, the basic idea is that of Pacman, but before you start moaning, Maze Mania has got something different to offer. Instead of gobbling up dots Flippo uses his size ten boots to flip over paving slabs.

Some slabs have a mind of their own and flip back, though another boot from Flippo usually does the trick. The game is split into 16 levels of maze, each with a different theme. Level one is made up of tubular bells, two is a vegetable garden, three - well, find out for yourselves!

Life would be easy for little Flippo if it weren't for the nasty aliens gliding around the mazes who aren't too keen on the citrus fruit vandalism. They bash poor Flippo at every opportunity. Another thing to avoid is a trip out to space. Black holes abound in the maze, and these need to be jumped. Luckily there are floating icons to help our hero, giving extra points or power to jump on the aliens and kill them.

The idea of Maze Mania may be a simple one, but it is totally addictive. Lightning reflexes are a must to get out of the tricky situations and jump the black holes. The graphics are neat, with plenty of colour in every maze (especially the garish vegetable patch level!), In fact so abundant it can be very hard on the old eyes after a while, but the jolly tunes and effects will take your mind off this. Designmaker have done an excellent job on Maze Mania. Get it for a simple but addictive arcade romp.

NICK … 82%

'This is a fairly basic maze game, I must say. The graphics are good and the presentation is slick, but the essential idea is...well a bit old, really! That said, Hewson have managed to make the best of a tired theme; all the playability imaginable in a maze game has been squeezed into this, which isn't an immense amount, but it'll do. Graphics are really appealing, and I think that makes the game a lot more enjoyable.'