Aqua Globs

She may have been dating a cat at the time, but it's generally agreed that Paula Abdul was onto something when she claimed that opposites attract.

You can join all the dating agencies you like, telling them the qualities you think your ideal partner should have, but it's the unexpected quirks that attract you to your other half. Even if that means having to enter their flat through a cat flap.

In Aqua Globs's world, however, opposites don't attract - in fact, opposites can't stand each other. The idea here is to direct matching coloured globs gliding around the screen towards each other, so that they meet up, combine, and create an even bigger glob.

Connect up these bigger globs and they'll disappear from the screen altogether. The only problem is, if two opposite coloured globs meet up, you lose a life, and with only three on offer from beginning to end, keeping afloat in Aqua Globs' world takes some doing.

It's a game that taxes your brain rather than your fingers: your only input is to redirect the globs as they appear from the edges of the screen. Doing so taps into the style of play popularised by Flight Control, with you drawing a line out from the glob to send it on a path of your own choosing.

To link the globs up, the idea is to draw a line that directly connects them, but only globs of the same size (i.e., comprising the same number of original globs) can be linked up, the game signifying matching globs by changing their shape.

An awareness of opposing globs coming into contact is also key: you need to re-route orange globs away from blue and vice versa. Indeed, the only globs that you can happily let crash into those of another colour are the green ones, as these effectively act as universal globs that can combine with either orange or blue and add to the tally.

And that's all that's required. Of course, Aqua Globs is far easier to describe than it is to conquer, with the number of globs creeping on screen multiplying the longer you hold out. Those after even more of a challenge will be pleased to learn that the speed of the globs themselves can also be manipulated to up the ante even further.

Not that many will need to. Like Flight Control before it, though the globs appear to be moving along slowly the potential collisions all over the map splits your attention, and it's easy to find yourself in calamity city, with orange and blue globs heading straight for each other all over the place.

This is all, however, startlingly familiar. Aqua Globs is something of a looker, the globs gliding around the pool like a minimalist take on Spore Origins, but even though this is clearly a title born out of love rather than a desire to cash in on Flight Control's fame, no-one can deny how similar play feels.

For anyone who has already invested in Firemint's finest, Aqua Globs will play like a return trip. That needn't be a criticism (it's hardly a bad thing to be favourably compared to a bona fide modern classic), but there's a genuine chance that simply replaying Flight Control might prove a more attractive alternative for many.

One big draw Aqua Globs has is, at just 59p/$0.99, it's a cheap way of buying into another quality slice of puzzling that proves just how addictive redirecting pods around the screen can be.

Aqua Globs is unlikely to bowl you over when it comes to originality, but, equally, rare will be the person it manages to disappoint. There might be an argument for saying it should have mixed up play just a little more, but by sticking to a well trodden route Aqua Globs has directed itself towards safe, solid ground.