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Russia's best game was a phenomenon which swept across all machines and sparked a massive legal battle between Atari Games, Mirrorsoft and Nintendo. Over four years after its release it's still all too easy to bump into Gameboy fanatics who boast of playing it non-stop for days at a time. Six months ago Alexey Pajitnov of the Soviet Academy of Sciences saw his 1989 sequel make it onto the Amiga (83%); now the C64 conversion is here and is unsurprisingly much the same.

As in Tetris, the player is faced with a constant onslaught of blocky pieces which must be fitted together to create lines. Form a solid line and it disappears, racking up the points and giving you space to create more lines. The difference is that instead of the pieces falling over vertically, now they can appear on any of the four sides of 3D 'well'. As they fall downwards you can rotate the pieces and also move them around the four walls.

If you're slow forming lines the well will soon start to fit up. Should you be unable to fit a piece completely into the base of well, and part of it sticks up a wall, then that wall flashes yellow and no pieces can be moved across it until another three pieces have fallen. If all four walls are locked up then it's game over.

Initially the pieces fall slowly, are relatively simple and there's plenty of little pieces for filling in gaps. After fifteen pieces things change though, an awkwardly shaped bonus piece falls and the speed is increased. Also, the purely decorative picture on the right of the screen changes and you start to get fewer easier little pieces, and more big, misfit blocks. Once you get adept at the game you can use the options at the start to increase the speed and difficulty of the game.

This slick C64 conversion boasts the same scenic Russian pics as the Amiga, well-done but still unremarkable while the Russian tunelets have been lost. Of course, half the appeal of C64 Tetris was the music, but a more complex game has been crammed into a single load and with some Coclleau Twins on the old ghettoblaster you soon get hooked.

The ability to move the pieces across four walls adds a lot to the basic Tetris concept - it takes a bit more thought, and leads to the temptation of fitting pieces together to create a slick pattern rather than going all out for lines.

Everone has a different approach to playing it, which is fun, and it's so simple you soon get addicted. As you get more efficient you can trying clearing the screen for bonus points, or splitting pieces on the corners which leads to some odd effects. It's not quite as compulsive as say Puzznic, but its challenge is more random so you're always hoping that on your next go the pieces will fall right.

A must for puzzle fanatics, and addictive for anyone compelled by making high scores.

It's six months since the Amiga game and to be honest I'm not as keen on it as I once was. I love C64 Tetris and the sequel doesn't match up for me. The main problem with the sequel is that it starts off very easy and stays that way for a while.

Then it suddenly jumps up several gears in speed, becoming rapidly impossible. The complexity of the game means speed five is just too much, for me at least. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite playable - especially as a high score game - but its lastability is a bit dubious.

Presentation 78%
Attractive loading screen, save-to-disk high score table, selectable difficulty with five speeds and three skill levels. Sound on/off plus two different move modes.

Graphics 64%
The main graphics are simplistic, but effective and soon build up plenty of speed. The pretty pictures are a bit dull though.

Sound 41%
Okay title tune, but in-game FX are strictly limited.

Hookability 78%
Very simple to get into with compulsive addiction soon setting in...

Lastability 80%
...pics don't provide much of an incentive to continue, but Tetris needn't them and neither does this.

Overall 80%
A compulsive successor to Tetris.