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You have angered Ra by not offering any goats' innards as a sacrifice this week. Or maybe it's 'cos you did offer goats' innards... Anyway, Ra's a bit miffed and so you have been turned into a Scarabaeus - a horrible little beetle with six legs, a shiny carapace and a burning desire for a dung-flavoured Pot Noodle.

In order to shed the four extra legs and the odd eating habits, you have to successfully solve the 100 hieroglyphic puzzles that Ra spent a few weeks putting together. Each puzzle consists of an array of blue tiles featuring adorned with hieroglyphics.

Each level consists of matching pairs of icons and the aim is to clear the screen by eliminating identical twins in a similar fashion to the Chinese puzzle game, Shanghai. To do this, move your Scarabaeus character onto the first tile and press fire: a pulsing cursor then appears. Move this over the other tile and press fire again. As soon as the beetle moves off the first tile, both tiles disappear from the screen.

You can only match tiles directly in line with each other and you always start and finish on the grey 'anchor' square (which can be guided around the screen). On earlier levels, there are solid strips linking the hieroglyphs, so you can steer your beetle around, remove all the tiles and then scurry back to the anchor to exit the screen. However, later levels are made up of separate characters which aren't connected to anything else. Some of them move; some of 'em don't. Here you have to move your anchor tile to a suitable point before the screen emptying begins. However, you have to be careful in which order you remove the 'glyphs: if you leave yourself isolated on a single, static tile, you won't be able to move to another one or get back to the anchor. That's where the grey cells come into action.

There are two game types included: a straightforward logic game and an arcade variant where the puzzles are easier but you're up against a time limit. Both really stretch the think muscle. If that's not enough, you can even design your own screens!

The blue-on-grey graphics are pleasant but a bit of variety in the colour scheme wouldn't have gone amiss. Curse Of Ra is smart-looking, well designed and nicely programmed (if a bit long-winded, even on disk) but don't let the new wave of puzzlers sweep you away. You'd do well to give this a wide berth unless you're into brain teasers which keep you up all night.

1. Intriguing puzzles really get the brain cells a-sizzling
2. Inclusion of two game styles, passcode entry systems and a screen designer heighten the lasting interest.
3. Pleasantly Egyptian-style ditties jolly you along.
4. Difficulty level can be discouraging - especially the arcade mode which is a killer.
5. Graphics are very stylish and functional. Digitised backdrops clutter the screen, but can be turned off.

1. Colour scheme lacks variety and the 'samey' icons can get confusing.
2. Arcade and logic game styles are similar and don't offer any real variety.
3. Hefty multi-loading - even on disk.

In the arcade mode, you can collect the coins that whizz across screen and buy magic items from a between-level shop. How about a nice 'Remove All Tiles Of The Same Design'. No? Try 'Restart The Level Without Losing A Life'... Maybe you'd be interested in the wonderful 'Go Straight To The Next Level'? Ah! Thought so!