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Would you believe it? The five Fantasy Kingdoms have been taken over by evil marauders. Not only that, but the five Fantasy Palaces and their occupants have been hidden away. But worst of all is that all of the Kingdoms have been turned to ice. Luckily for everyone concerned, you, Kickle Cubicle, were passing the scene with your magic powers in tow. Now you've been recruited by the plants, flowers, fruit and other pretty flora and fauna of the Fantasy Kingdoms to save their Princesses and restore the lands to their former greenery.

Kickle Cubicle is a single-screen puzzle game which takes place on areas of blocks suspended in space. The object is simply to complete each screen by picking up three magic pouches. They're usually impossible to reach at first, situated on single blocks unconnected to the main playing area, so what you have to do is create a path to reach them. To do this you blast a nearby baddie with your freeze ray and turn him into an ice block. Pushing the block off the edge of the landscape turns it into a bridge section, which you keep building upon until you can reach the pouches.

It might sound simple, but as you progress there are more and more hazards, far more baddies and the pouches get increasingly more difficult to reach. But hey, when you've got a name like Kickle Cubicle, life is never going to be easy.

Kickle doesn't have the monopoly on tricks - his opponents have plenty up their undoubtedly-evil-looking sleeves. These dastardly creations include mini gun turrets, spring-loaded walls, bomb-people which explode and kill Kickle, cannons, firing bombs which temporarily destroy some of the island around them, killer clowns and deadly pink penguins!

There are five different types of blocks in Kickle Cubicle. First are the stnadard ice blocks made by freezing blue baddies. Unless these are kicked into a gap fairly quickly, they melt and the baddies re-emerge. Then there are raised blocks (ice stoppers can't be dropped on these, and enemies can't cross over them), stone blocks (cannot be crossed over by anything), pink blocks (can be crossed over by baddies, but you're unable to drop ice stoppers on them) and hole blocks (which can't be filled, and walking over them results in a drowning-style fate for Kickle-babes).

At first sight, Kickle Cubicle appears to be a moronic excuse for a game. And for the first few levels that's what it is. The game is simplistic and far too easy. All this changes however, once the first world is completed. From here, things get a lot tougher, with Kickle coming up against some fiendish traps, some of which take a lot of thinking to get out of.

Although, even then, the game could never be classed as difficult. Kickle Cubicle is never really a test of reflexes, but as a puzzle game it works quite well. The lastability is questionable however, due to the infinite continues and the simplicity of the gameplay. If puzzle games are your thing, give Kickle Cubicle a go. If not, then I'd advise you to try it out before parting with any money.

Kickle Cubicle is an almost brilliant game which is sadly let down by a few annoying flaws. It's fun to play and is very addictive at first, with the simplistic gameplay providing very entertaining, medium-paced puzzle-solving antics.

However, the challenge never really appears, and with very little practice you're able to get miles into the game - and the infinite continues let even the biggest videogame idiot complete the game with ease!

Puzzle fans will certainly enjoy Kickle Cubicle, but unfortunately the enjoyment just doesn't last long enough.

Presentation 72%
Good intermission screens, but no options.

Graphics 78%
Lots of well drawn sprites and reasonable animation.

Sound 62%
Sickening theme tune and effects.

Playability 78%
The simplistic gameplay is both enjoyable and easy to get into...

Lastability 67%
...but the challenge never really gets tough, and with the unlimited continues, you can complete it in a sitting.

Overall 72%
A decent puzzle game which needs more thrills and challenge to make it great.