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Grip the old monkey wrench firmly in your hand, push your work cap squarely onto the back of your head and get ready for a fiendish challenge of the highest order.

If you've never tried your hand at plumbing before, get in touch with somebody who has, because you are going to need all the hell) you can get in your quest to construct the craziest pipelines in history.

Starting at the 'S' mark, where else, the aim of the game is to build a pipe out of straight sections, bent sections and cross-sections, filling as much of the screen as posssible. Soon after you start your mammoth task, the icky green flooz comes creeping after you, determined to catch you up before you finish the job.

In the top right hand corner of the screen, you are told how far the Flooz needs to travel before the round is completed, usually fourteen segments in the earlier rounds. If your pipe does not stretch that far, you come to a sticky end, but if it does, you are through to an even harder level.

Before you get building, a quick run through the pracfice level will give you the general idea of the game, and how best to use the pipe segments as they come into play. Place the pipes wherever you like, but you'll need to think ahead and move quickly in order to beat the Flooz.

When you judge that your pipe has covered the right amount of ground, you can either stop building and press to speed up the Flooz to the end, or build on to earn a few extra points.

As you progress, you will come up against a number of obstacles and special pipe segments to make your life just that little bit harder. Look out for one-way pipe pieces, move around obstacles, and try to direct the Flooz into reservoirs to buy yourself a little time to build on. On certain levels, you can direct the Flooz off the screen to reappear on the other side, to help you out of a tight corner, while on others, you will need to connect your pipe to a special end piece, after completing the minimum distance of course, otherwise you lose the round.

After every four levels, you will also come up against a brain teasing bonus round, which will see pipe segments scrolling across the top of the screen waiting for you to bring them down in the correct order to let the Flooz flow. A little reminiscent of Tetris, maybe? Who cares, it is certainly just as fast and furious a challenge.

When using cross-pieces of pipe, make sure you have enough room to loop through them, to earn extra points, and try not to replace segments too often by exploding them, as this costs points.

With two player competition and expert levels included in the package, Pipe Mania is compulsive playing and guaranteed to set your blood boiling along with the Flooz. Go out and buy it now, it's piping hot stuff.