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Off we go with the Chemistry lesson. What do two 'H's and an 'O' make? (Long pause). Er... OHH? Um - HOH? No, no, no, you dolt! It's water. H2O! Oh (eau?). Right, let's try another. What do a 'C' and four 'H's make? (Even longer pause). Gorrit! SCHHHHweppes tonic water. Erm... Coffee. No? Tea. Mikshake!

Groan. Don't worry if you don't know your methane (CH4, by the way) from your elbow. Anyone expecting to find a boring educational chemistry program can breathe a sigh of relief. This is definitely a game - and a vicious one at that.

It is a puzzler, though, so if you're the sort of bloke - or blokess - who wouldn't play a puzzle game if it was the only game to survive a nuclear holocaust, this might be a good point to slide off and read something else... Right, now that we've got rid of the dimbo laserheads amongst us, here are the ingredients: Atomix is a tricky test of strategic thinking, where you are tasked with the bonding together of atoms in the correct formation to make molecules.

These atoms are all lazing around inside maze-type constructions. Only once you've managed to rebuild the molecule (shown on the left), does each atom flare up and disappear, clearing the way for the next level.

You can move individual atoms around by selecting them with the cursor and then pushing the joystick in whichever direction you want them to go. However! These slippery atoms just skate across the floor and don't stop until they hit something - like a wall or another atom; you can't just stop them in mid-shove. Unless you plan your moves very carefully, atoms can often end up in awkward positions where they can't be easily retrieved.

And as if this cerebral stuff wasn't enough, there's also a time limit. If you don't successfully build the molecule before the time zeroes out, you have to start again from the first level. Ouch! Complete the level and the time is swapped for points. With enough points you can buy extra time for any level you fail to complete, giving you a second chance when you muck up. This acts pretty much like a continue option - and a darn useful one, too!

Each of the 30 mazes takes up a single screen, and while the visuals aren't going to win any design awards, the artist hasn't over-compensated by using wild or complex colour schemes. It looks OK and moves well - what more do you want?

How 'bout some sound? Well, Atomix comes with a few smart loading tunes to soothe your troubled mind. However, the soundtrack will have you gnashing your teeth when it repeats for the hundredth time!

If you warmed to the game SokoBan, then Atomix will send you critical! It's more of the game - but with an even more warped sense of humour.

The puzzles are devilishly fiendish, but once conquered stay that way. If you finish all 30 levels (which isn't the Mission Impossible it might sound), there's little point in going back to it, except to try again on a harder setting (and you're hardly likely to do that now, are you?).

1. Clear, colourful screens with neatly drawn atoms.
2. Cursor control method is smooth and responsive.
3. Three decent soundtracks - a loading tune, an inter-level ditty and the main soundtrack during play.
4. Friendly disk version saves scores to floppy.
5. Amazingly addictive - the superbly designed levels will have you tearing your hair out!
6. Single cassette load makes life easy for non-disk users.
7. Continue option eases the pain.

1. Starting right from the beginning every time is a real pain.
2. Main soundtrack is too repetitive.
3. It won't take too long to finish - and after that, well...
4. Useless two player option.