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Puzzle games, eh? They're like buses: you don't see any for ages and then three come along all at once. This particular brain strainer is a natty-looking title from those demon coders at Demonware (who share share an office with Snap! Records - not a lot of people know that).

In Gem'X you aim to exactly replicate the collection of jewels in the right-hand pile by fiddling around with a pile on the left. You point at individual gems with the help of a standard-issue disembodied hand. By pressing fire you cause that particular precious to drop in value by two units. The catch is that the gems above, below and to the left and right of it are also devalued by one unit.

Now all this unit-dropping is colour coded, and the extended traffic light affair in the centre acts as a permanent guide. As an example, clicking on a red gem causes it to turn blue and non-diagonally adjacent jewels to turn green. The difficulty arises when the surrounding stones are a variety of colours and have to be changed by different values. A stone's colour is altered twice when you click on any two adjacent gems: left, right, above or below (think about it).

Once a gem has turned gold, any further decrease of value makes it disappear and the gems above fall into the vacant position. Later on, the pile on the right has fewer gems in it than the one on the left, so removing golds becomes an integral part of the puzzle.

Every screen has to be completed in a set number of moves and within a set time (yuk). A collection of screens is called a 'mine' and there are 26 mines, arranged in a tree formation. You choose your own route through this formation, so you can actually finish the game without having to solve every single screen (which is good, 'cause there are lots). The game is introduced by Kiki - a dewey-eyed Japanese bimbette of dubious occupation - and a vaguely oriental theme is continued throughout by having monochrome intermission screens of scantily-clad (well, starkers!) Japanese comic girlies concealing their embarrassment by soap suds or fluffy bunnies in discreet locations.

Gem'X is slickly coded and comes with neat visuals and a typically Germanic array of easily pleasing tunes and tinkly sound effects. Gameplay is strictly for puzzle addicts, since the action gets no more hectic than a column of gems cascading prettily down the screen. I can't vouch for the long-term playability - it doesn't take too long for you to see everything unfold. That just leaves it for the puzzles to become incredibly difficult. Limited by your moves (which also include retractions), you find that by the time you've experimented on the bigger screens, you've got no moves left or the timer's run out.

Puzzle people who want another game (to burn even more of their brain cells) will shine to this.

1. No variation in the puzzle gameplay - it just gets harder...
2. ...And is too easy to begin with

1. Treat your ears to some stunning spot effects.
2. Limited moves and time-up really do get the adrenalin flowing!
3. Very neat visuals - including those dubious intermission screens.
4. Beautifully simple yet annoyingly addictive: the urge to progress is very strong.
5. High quality programming: smooth, slick and glitch-free.
6. Choice of puzzles means no two games are identical.
7. Multiload is handled as well as possible for tape users.