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Pipemania is an out and out Magagame. For me at least, few games come close to this one for sheer playability. In my perfect games collection, stripped down to the bare essentials, there's Columns, Klax, Pang, Rainbow Islands, Rodland and this one.

Pipemania is the everyday tale of a plumber who has to slot pipes together before the water comes rushing through them and floods the entire basement. Or whatever. It went down a storm when it was first released and appeared on nearly everybody's list of the year's best games. It was also converted to the NES and to a coin-op. Y'see, Pipmania works on every single format cos it's so simple yet so wonderfully playable. In fact - it's a bit like Othello. Well, it's not got any little round pieces or a green baize board, bit it does take a minute to learn and least a few lunch hours to master.

You might not know it yet, but what you really want is to sit in front of the Speccy for an evening forming long lines of pipes, blowing up parts of it and pulling your hair out when the water floozes out, despite your best efforts. If you don't already own a copy of this cunning little puzzler, then I suggest you pull on your wellies and splash off to the shops pronto. And I said pronto, Tonto. Hurrah!