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Every so often a game appears that's laughably simple to play, yet is so unbelievably addictive you just can't stop playing it. Tetris was one such game. Pipe Mania is another.

At the start of a level you're presented with a simple grid of squares, one of which contains a tap. A timer starts to count down, and what you have to do is place pieces of pipe on the screen, each section of pipe occupying one of the grid squares, and form a pipeline. When the timer runs out, the tap opens and liquid slowly floods out and around your system of pipes. You can still continue to put down pieces of pipe, but the liquid flows relentlessly on until it inevitably reaches the end of pipe...

On each screen you have a set target which you must beat. For example, on the first screen the liquid must flow through fourteen squares - fourteen pieces of pipe in other words. If the flow reaches the end of a pipe before it has gone through the target amount, it's game over.

The pipe pieces come in a variety of shapes, and appear randomly one at a time - although you can see what the next four shapes will be. Sometimes it's easy to link them together and form an unbroken line, while at other times you really have to think ahead!

As you progress through the levels, things get tougher and tougher, with faster moving liquid, an ever-decreasing time limit, and things like one-way pipes, bonus pipes, holes, obstacles, and tunnels from one side of the screen to the other to help or hiner you. It gets very frantic indeed!

As I've already said, Pipe Mania is a very simple game, and on paper sounds a bit dull. But, to put it bluntly, it's one of the most addictive games I've ever played. It's rather like Tetris in that respect. You can't really say why the game keeps you playing non-stop for so long. It just does. You go back to it time and time again. And just when you think you've finished, you go back for another go. And another. And another...

As well as the game being utterly brilliant, it's also superbly presented, with a password scheme to let you access higher levels and, adding enormously to the lasting appeal, a one or simultaneous two-player option, which is amazing fun, and two modes of play, normal mode and one where you have two lots of pipe shapes to choose from!

Pipe Mania is a fantastic piece of computer software it's got that timeless quality that'll keep it fresh long after the latest big-name licences have gone off. It's a must.

A classic puzzle/arcade game that is so addictive it could come with a Government Health Warning.