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Dear Santa, you're useless. I asked you for a massive Scalextric set, a surf board and a few puzzle games for my Speccy and all I got was three pairs of socks, a pink polo neck jumper and seventeen bottles of aftershave (which I don't use). Take my advice and find a new career...

If only Santa has realised that a good puzzle didn't mean wondering why all my aunts and uncles gave me silly things for Christmas. If only he had included Pipemania in my stocking, this criticism would never have occurred.

Pipemania is a completely simple concept but incredibly addictive. Take a grid, seven squares by ten, put a tap somewhere on it and provide a ton of copper piping, all bent in different directions. Then give someone 20 seconds to start connecting pipes away from the tap before slime, the tap's contends, starts to flow. The idea being to make the slime go as far as possible in your plumber's masterpiece.

You can blow up undesirable sections of pipe, get help from reservoirs which slow down the slime, pick up icons and generally get completely wrapped up in playing Pipemania. To start with it can be annoying, but once you get the hang of this game you'll love it and probably never leave it.

It's been a long time since I've played Pipemania and it took me a while to start thinking the right way again. Not for the easily beaten or feeble of heart. Pipemania is challenging and worth having.

Pipemania is one of those classic puzzle games. If you haven't got it, I would strongly suggest going right out and buying it. Difficult at first but once you get used to it there's nothing more satisfying.