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Everybody's conservation-minded these days, and now you too can do your bit by helping to save the lesser-spotted, yellow-crested, pink toed Skweek - or "Gamus Ratus Addicitivus, as they say in Latin (Remember, when in Rome do as the Romanians!). Skweek is a creature who needs :o reclaim his environment which has become polluted with horrible blue (boo!) tiles. They must all be painted pink if the little rodent is to be able to pursue life, liberty and the skweekian way.

To make tiles change colour, all Skweek has to do is run over the top of them (where does he keep his paintbrush?). Naturally, things are never straightforward, and our furry friend is pursued by a whole host of strange and curious beasties. Everybody, it seems, wants a piece of the yellow peril - ghosts, fireballs, purple people eaters, even gun-toting octopii! Green star fish demolish walls to reveal blue tiles just to make life difficult, while the purple gang occasionally start laying new blue tiles to add to the challenge.

Skweek materialises (in a normal game) on a series of increasingly tough levels. The first one you visit, more of a warm up than anything else, has no tricks or traps apart from large holes in the floor. Don't let this lure you into a false sense of security, though: its real dangerous out there for a young Skweek who's not used to the turf. Floors decay, manholes allow monsters to pop up and get you and self-destruct squares blow up all the tiles in the immediate area leaving Skweek stranded in mid-air making like Jerry the mouse scrambling for solid ground.

On the plus side for serious Skweekists are a multitude of goodies to collect and keep: laser fire, turbo speed, baby skweek bonus lives, ice cream (!) and the Teds, the single greatest gift ever to the Skweeklanders. It's not that they've never grown up, it's that they need something to snuggle up with at night. But collect four teddy bears and you get five extra lives.

Skweek himself is a small ball of fur in a sea of blue, his four-way movement suiting the right-angled tile-world in which he lives. You send him scurrying around, painting his heart out when a beastie glides onto the screen. Like Pacman, each creature has a particular style of attack. The onion shape boys are the worst, endlessly jumping around the place as if they've drank too much coffee, and as fast as Skweek with the turbos on full blast!

Octopii fire rebounding shots that seem to track Skweek, even when he tries to hide. It's outrageous! Why can't these monsters act, like normal people and stand on chairs when mice-like animals enter the room?

In normal game mode, you meet new dangers at the rate of two or three a level as you progress. In random mode, you can find the mouseketeer Skweek transported to any level from the pushovers up until levels where you don't even know how to start.

On the more ridiculously tough settings, self-destruct 'POW' tiles actually trap you in a corner as your path disintegrates leaving you scrambling for floor (or just plain dead!). Other times, you come face-to-face with arrow tiles that drag you along a long and winding path only to deposit you into a hole, or onto slippery slidy tiles that quite defeat any kind of direction. Once on these, it's a case of trusting to luck and hoping that great Skweek in the sky is smiling - a rare event indeed.

The whole look of the game with the cutesy characters seems directed at the lower end of the age range. Yet anyone of any age will immediately be seduced by Skweek's subtle charms, simply because it's fun and quite different. There is only one question that must be answered: why doesn't the little geezer actually ever make a noise, let alone a squeak? Still, I suppose a game called Mute wouldn't do too well, would it?

You'd have thought that Codemasters had the furry, cuddly bunch all covered with Dizzy - but you'd be wrong.

Skweek is daft, but great fun - try it!

Two sets of Teds in succession.

Impossible, since the game is based on colours. Not recommended.

Graphics 84%
P. Pretty in pink - tough luck if you don't like the colour!
N. Invisible in green.

Sonics 82%
P. A jolly, happy tune...
N. ...that you'll grow to loathe.

Grab Factor 92%
P. Instant addiction.

Staying Power 72%
P. Trillions of levels!
N. Some areas are simply unplayable.

Overall 82%
Enjoyable entertainment that could become an obsession. Dizzy, look out!