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If you can't take it with you, make sure no-one else can enjoy it. That seems to be the motto of Andre Thelman, one of the world's richest men who passed away in 2049. During the ten years previous to his demise Thelman had built an incredible maze. Located in a 'temporal cavity' in his gardens, the maze is made of twenty levels linked by hidden teleports. At the heart of the lethal maze Thelman has left a mystery object presumed to be incredibly valuable.

During the years since Thelman's death a great many people have tried, and failed to solve the maze. Their attempts have become a popular a popular prime-time show filmed by overhead cameras. Each adventurer enters the maze in a hover ship armed with a plasma cannon. The ship hovers over the smoothly scrolling floor but is destroyed if it falls down the gaps. All turns are made instantaneously, snapping the screen 90 degress about the ship. By pressing fire and pulling back on the joystick, the ship jumps, while fire and forward leaving a solid trail behind.

Your objective on each level is to find the final teleport - two linked, flashing circles. The most basic obstacle is the maze-like layout, but there's lots more besides. Scattered around the mazes are special tiles, which do everything from speeding you up, to making it impossible to turn on them.

Then there are switches - fly over them to turn them on/off, create new pathways, open walls, and destroy robot ships. The robots include dumb ones which take only a single shot to destroy, homing robots, indestructible robots, and ones which fly over gaps leaving trails you can fly along. Also to be watched out for are flashers: strips which flash blue/white and are deadly when showing white. The most fun, though, are mines - arranged in large fields, only the flashing ones are harmful.

More useful are bonuses, these flash five times before disappearing and can boost score, lives, and even jump you a level - but they're only activated if you complete the level you're on. To help you do this, there's local teleports which jump you around the level you're on.

As you progress in the game, 'environmental' conditions can change so you might not be able to stop, jump, or even leave a trail. The twenty levels are split into five loads of four levels. If, for example, you die on level seven you only go back to the start of theload - level five - which the number of lives you have when you started the load.

Puzzle games? Bleugh! First impressions of this game can make you dizzy with all the screen-scapping 90 deg turns. But once you remember you can actually stop moving to think about things, rather than panicking at high speed, the game opens up brilliantly.

The first load is a very well judged introduction to Snare, which thereafter shows increasingly sadistic teeth (such as not being able to stop!).

Original and attractive, this is one of those games which will keep you coming back for ages. Recommended.

Despite its basic simplicity, Snare is a difficult game to play. The slightest mistake is punished mercilessly and even with the exit in sight, you can easily fall into a hole or bump into a wall, sending you back to the start of the level.

Things might have got a bit too frustrating if it weren't for the excellent continue option and the fact that there's no time limit. The immediate 90 degree turns add an original, disorientating element to the highly enjoyable play. Snare is easy to get into but very hard to leave alone. In fact, I'd give it a Sizzler!

Presentation 92%
Good in-game info, excellent multi-load, and great cover art!

Graphics 86%
Not much variety, but attractive all the same with some finely detailed ships.

Sound 74%
Good intro music and spot FX.

Hookability 84%
A bit confusing to start with, but the first few levels soon become easy.

Lastability 92%
Increasing difficulty over 20 levels means there's lots of reasons for you to rip all your hair out.

Overall 88%
A fascinating and extremely addictive arcade/puzzle game.