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No, it's nothing like Tetris, honest! Okay, things fall down the screen and must be arranged to make them disappear, but it plays completely differently. Instead of awkward shapes you have trios of objects which can be moved left/right as they fall. By pressing fire, you can also change their order, e.g. 'doughnut, blancmange, banana' to 'banana, doughnut, blancmange'. That's right, the objects are food - although they can be changed to either traffic signs, weather symbols or heavenly bodies (no, not *that* kind; I mean stars, sun and moon, etc!).

The familiar objective is to form rows (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of three identical objects to make them disappear - destroy a set number before the stacked objects reach the top of the screen and you qualify for the next level. When any of the objects in the falling trio reaches the top of another object in the stack, it stops on top of it. However, the other two objects in the trio will continue to fall - and can still be controlled and even swapped - until they too settle on top of something.

This twist allows a lot more versatility than standard Tetris-style games, which should mean a greater tactical depth. Unfortunately, though, the game speed soon increases to an impossible rate where play deteriorates into total panic - it's simply too fast to think! A real shame, as later levels add interesting special features such as randomly appearing blocks, reversed controls, indestructible blocks and the requirement to make diagonal rows. There's also a neat scoring system with extra points for horizontal and diagonal rows, rows of four or more and those destroyed by chain reactions, plus bonuses for completing a screen and how much space is left.

Presentation is also of a high standard for a budget game, with choice of starting level, four sets of very nicely animated objects and an okay tune to accompany the action.

If only the pace built up more gradually, Stack Up would be a superb puzzler. As it is, it's still very addictive but also rather frustrating.