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Had I not stayed up last night playing this game, I'd have told you it was rubbish and not worth getting a sweaty palm for. But you should never dismiss Hewson as easily as that. Anarchy is manic blasting with depth, and it's addictive. What it isn't is anarchic - there are no petrol bombs and no Iranians.

Anarchy is probably one of the simplest games Hewson have produced; you could read the instructions about as quickly as the number on a bus. Forget the story about anarchic rebels taking over a planet, what you do is this. You move around in a maze of Hewson-like 3D squares blasting the ones that look like pieces of Yorkie bar, only they're red. By the way, there are two kinds of square to zap, the other one looks a Pyramint.

When you've got rid of them all, an exit flashes somewhere on the screen. Something else rather more disturbing happens too. The floor starts to move around which kind of throws you. It doesn't do your stomach any good either. Make it to the exit and you proceed to the next level and more of the same, albeit different colours and a more complex arrangement of squares.

Sounds pretty boring, doesn't it? OK, so there are a few nasties spinning around. You can't blast them, though. You merely turn them into temporary squares which you can push around. A few seconds later they're back as spinning nasties.

The real crux of the matter is that you can't blast a square unless you're at least one square's distance away from it. Squares are cunningly arranged in such a way that you have to devise a methodical system of blasting to get rid of them all. Since you have only two minutes per level, you can forget the idea of making notes.

When the last piece has been zapped, your fire-power is curiously disabled. This leaves you vulnerable to the spinning nasties who seem to know you've got your pants down because they gang up on you. So you must organise your blasting so that the last piece to go is as close as possible to the exit.

So that's what you do for the first four levels. Things change a little from fifth onwards because droids are introduced. Droids look remarkably like you. They follow you around and blasting merely holds them at bay for a second or too. These things are real mean. The only way forward is to dodge them. Later still, you're confronted by whole armies to droids and spinning things.

A few words about the sound. Apart from very impressive title music, Hewson have done away with boring old blasting noises. It all sounds rather like the music you get when Dr. Who gets grabbed by the Cybernauts. The Pyramint squares make a sound like a motor scooter horn. Lots of manic blasting produces some really weird effects.

Lastly, the graphics. These are up to Hewson standards but not as impressive as some of their earlier stuff. A little more effort could have gone into the nasties. Still, the explosion effect when you blast squares is pretty neat.

A little hint, let the title screen play a while and you'll see some sample screens. Watching carefully gives you some ideas on how to tackle the higher levels.

I enjoyed Anarchy. It's simple yet tricky and challenging. Maybe not destined to be a classic but great budget value all the same.