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Time for an evil menacing laugh! Har har har [Was that it? Pathetic! - Ed]. Well I was pleased with it. I'm just getting into the idea of being a demon, you see. If I'm going to crack this Demon Blues game, I figure that I've got to think and act like a malevolent spirit of the deep, dark underworld.

Flair, the programmers, are taking on CodeMasters on their home territory with this game. It's a hundred-screen arcade-style explore and avoid nasties in an afterlife type effort. And it's only 3.99!

Demon Blues is a cheerful, bouncy little sprite who wobbles around the vaguely Greek underworld looking for six keys which will free him forever. If he gets free, presumably he'll renounce his evil ways and be a good boy. This is certainly to be encouraged, so get ready with your clammy joystick.

The first thing you'll notice about ol' Bluey is that he spends the entire game unarmed. Yep, fight fans, there aren't any lasers, grenade-launchers, Uzi 9mms, shurikens or nuclear weapons to be found. All you've got to protect him is a little five-pointed star which orbits him permanently. This star seems to destroy most baddies it comes into contact with, but to get close enough to them for it to work is dead dangerous and not to be recommended. And even if you do, some baddies just aren't affected by it, and you watch your energy dwindling as you vainly try and do some damage.

So in order to get anywhere, you've got to be resigned to the fact that your little character is going to take a serious amount of punishment. You can still make your way through the screens, but you've got to look out for energy pots. As you'd expect, these give your little chap that all-important energy boost (delicious and nutrious).

You'll also need to master the effect of whizzing rapidly across the screen. If you hold the joystick in either of the downward diagonal positions, the little demon belts across the screen in that direction at an incredibly high rate of knots. This is useful in two ways. Firstly, it gets you past any nasties which might be lurking around in the middle of the screen. If you do hit them, you sail right through without any damage being done at all. Secondly, if there's a spike-filled pit you can't jump over, it's sometimes possible to skate right across the top of it using the high-speed mode. Clever, eh?

As you wander round, you might also chance across valuable, glittering gems. Grab these because they're worth untold riches to you (well, a few measly points anyway!).

Although the flip-screen idea isn't exactly brand-spanking new, the game looks pretty different from most others of its type, and every screen is packed with animated bits and pieces all whirling around in the most frighteningly realistic way. Realistic, that is, if you've actually wandered around an ancient Greek mythological setting and seen stuff like this.

Indeed, Demon Blues certainly looks very pretty. Each screen has got something you won't see on any of the others - so you've got to keep plugging at it to find out what's just around the next corner.

In fact, the only thing I can criticise the game for is that it's doggone tough. Not having a weapon is a novel feeling for the first few times you play it, but you'll soon get fed up with your inability to blast the mutoid nasties as they swoop down over you. You also die a lot, as well.

Oh yes, and you only get one life. I can't imagine for the life of me (little gag, there) or understand why coders occasionally produce arcade games with only one play. It's the most infuriating thing ever, and makes me really want to scream. Aarrgghh! See? I mean you can get dozens of screens into the thing, then one stupid mistake and you land on a load of spikes and die. And that's it. You don't get another chance at it until you work your way back to the same screen.

But if you can overlook this teensy little problemette (you'd have to be really good at Demon Blues, mind), there's an awful lot to see and do. Tricks, traps and puzzles litter virtually all of the screens, making things frustrating and (dare I say it?) rather addictive. Yes, I will dare to say it. Demon Blues is very addictive. So there. The sheer size of the blimmin' thing means that it's not a game, you'll see all of on the first sitting. You'll be lucky to see a quarter of it (and remember, that's still a rather large 25 screens worth. On the whole, it's great entertainment - perfect for the little devil in your life (especially if it's you).

1. Lack of a weapon makes Demon Blues dead tough.

1. Fast, smooth graphics that don't clash with each other and give you a headache.
2. Over a hundred packed screens to explore.
3. Very nice animation.
4. Although the format isn't new, there is an original feel to Demon Blues.
5. And it's addictive to keep you plugging away (even though it's hard).
6. At this price, you wouldn't except an earth-shaking game, but Demon Blues delivers the goods and leaves you change out of a fiver!