Empire/Enigma Variations
£11.99, £14.99

Pipe Mania is back to haunt us again, but I mean that very nicely of course. As with all great puzzle games the idea is simple: you're presented with a playing grid. Onto this you must place pieces of piping from a 'dispenser'set at the side of the screen. At the top of the screen is the amount of piping you must set down before you can move to the next level. The catch? Well, if you look to the right side of the screen there's a timer: this ticks down and heralds the arrival of flooz, a yellowish liquid that races down the pipes at breakneck speed.

Connecting the pipes is fairly easy at first, but on later levels things get difficult with pipes that only let the flooz flow in one direction and various other devious traps. I'm happy to say that the Sam version of Pipe Mania is just as playable (and frustrating) as the Speccy game. As expected, the graphical capabilities of the Sam are put to good use, though the graphic style is admittedly pretty simplistic. Sonics are also very impressive with a bouncy intro tune and atmospheric sound effects. To my mind, this is a CRASH SMASH for a second time.

MARK [91%]

Pipe Mania has been a great success on all formats, and now it's arrived on the SAM. Of course the basic game is the same on every computer; no flashy graphics are needed when you're dealing with pipes. It's the infuriating gameplay that keeps you coming back for more - strange isn't it?

Graphically the game is almost identical to the 16-bit versions showing that the SAM can really compete with its big brothers. Sound effects and tunes are in abundance but I can't help noticing how similar the tune is to Sam Strikes Out!, surely you can vary musical styles on the Coupe?

Pipe Mania is one of those games that are simple in concept but devilishly hard to play: if you don't like your hair how it is or are bald, then take a look at this!
NICK [87%]

LABEL: Empire
MEMORY: 256K
TAPE: £11.99
DISK: £14.99

Funny isn't it, nearly all of the great puzzle games from the past year began with a "P", Plotting, Puzznic, Pick "n" Pile and....

One "P" game had a massive impact on 16 bit computers when it first made it's appearance and sure enough it was only a few months after it's surprise success that it beat a hasty path to us 8 bit users as well, what's more it turned out to be a bit of a classic! What was this infamous puzzle game I hear you cry? Why it's none other than Pipe Mania!

The game is simplicity itself, just lay the pipes for the "Flooz" to flow through, lay enough pipes and you get onto the next level. The first few levels are no problem and you can get acquainted with the game's flow very quickly before things start to hot up! Hindering your progress through the levels are all manner of nasty objects like spanners and stop signs that have to be steered around or passed through. There are some helpful objects too like reservoirs that can slow the rate of the "Flooz" for a short time and bonus tiles that you can direct your flow of gunge through.

When you have became fully accustomed to the run of things and you think that you have well and truly got the game sussed the computer starts putting in some End squares to direct the Flooz into before you are able to complete a level.

Sounds great, and indeed it is until you spot the few small niggles that the programmers didn't deal with properly. There are only a few and you don't often come across them, but they're there none the less. For instance the title placer that you control doesn't go diagonally and if you want to use the keyboard in the expert mode and input one of the passwords afterwards you could well feel like giving your Sam a swift kick in the joystick port as it is an unnecessarily complex procedure. Other than that the game is good fun, has an excellent bouncy tune with some good sound effects marred by a fiddly selection process.

ANDREA: I work in a sewer, so it's no problem to play a game set in a drain! I like this, the conversion is fairly accurate. Jolly spiffing stuff.