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Pac-Man-style games come and go and, as the saying goes, here comes another one. This time the scenario reads that Flippo, a kind of hedgehog with two legs cut off, has to find his way out of the Mazes of the Upper Plane.

He does this by walking over tiles, which then flip over and change colour. Once all the tiles in the current maze have been flipped correctly, he can leave for the next via a mysterious flashing teleporter.

Things aren't as simple as they first seem, though. Our flipping friend only has a limited amount of energy, and there are plenty of aliens around willing to do him in. If he gets caught too many times, he loses one of three lives. Fortunately, extra lives are available in the form of Flippo icons; you can also pick up a lightning icon which gives you extra energy, and a fist, which allows you to stomp on lots of alien heads without losing strength.

In addition, there are some tiles which change colour every time you flip them, and others than can only be turned when walked over from one direction. And woe betide the Flippo that falls down a hole, for his life is quickly snuffed out.

And that's all there is to it. Flippo is very similar to US Gold's Skweek, but unfortunately Skweek is cuter, has far more levels and greater variety of bonus icons. Although it's a nice enough game, Maze Mania is just too repetitive and simplistic for the price.

Like most Pac-Man-inspired games, the action is initially appealing; this is also helped by a cute main character and reasonably fast-paced gameplay. However, with so few and so similar levels it doesn't hold much lasting interest.