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A late entry in the abstract-puzzle-game stakes, Gem-X immediately invites comparisons with both Ocean's Puzznic and the Sega arcade game Columns. Yes, it's sort of similar to both, though look beneath the cosmetics and you'll see that in gameplay terms Gem-X has a style all of its own.

Briefly the game presents you with a split-screen, one half of which contains a pile of variously-coloured gems, the other half of which contains... er, a pile of variously coloured gems. The idea is to make the pile on the left match exactly the pile on the right by means of a simple transformation principle. Clicking the mouse (or joystick) on a particular gem will cause it to change colour by two steps in a given sequence. The four gems around it will also change, but only by one step in the sequence.

If a transformation would cause the colour of any gem to go beyond the last colour in the sequence, that gem will disappear and the others in the pile will fall down to fill the gap Klax-style. You have only a certain number of moves in which to complete a screen, and you must do it inside a time limit too. And really that's all there is to it.

Rather than go into a deep and involved analysis of the game and then coming up with a conclusion, I'll give you the conclusion now. Gem-X is utterly, utterly wonderful, and here's why. From the start, the game absolutely oozes class. Presentation-wise, it looks like an arcade game, and it's structured like one too, with very easy initial levels gently grawing you in, building in difficulty until you're really hooked, then hitting you with screens that will make you jaw drop to the floor in horror and your brain beg for mercy.

You won't be able to leave it alone, though, because it's all wrapped up with luscious graphics and impossibly lovely sound, including sampled speech that'll steal your heart away and refuse to give it back. You'll find yourself actually talking back to Gem-X, but no-one will think you're weird because everyone else will be doing exactly the same, completely transfixed by the angelic voice of Kiki, the game's Japanese hostress.

Kiki's friends also make the odd appearance in the game, as every time you complete a few screens you get a codeword that lets you start on the higher levels, each one delivered by a beautiful Japanese girl with no clothes on (but tastefully obscured by a fluffy bunny rabbit or some other such icon of cuteness).

You probably wouldn't be all that surprised if I was to tell you this makes for makes for some pretty major-league addictiveness, so I won't waste my breath and we'll all just take it as read, okay?

When this game came into the office, we all had a look and went 'Oh yes, that looks nice, might have a go on that in a while if I've got nothing else to do.' Some time later the security guard was enquiring whether we in fact had any homes to go to, as it was the middle of the night and he'd sort of like to lock up the building. We threw him out of a third floor window and had another game. And another game. And one last game. And 'Okay, just one more game and then I'm definitely going home.' And then... well, you get the picture. Gem-X. Why haven't you bought it yet?

The most fun you'll ever have having your brain tortured (unless of course you really hate puzzle games, in which case it's a bit of a non-starter).