Absolute Minesweeper

As much money as (Sir) Bill Gates has made, we reckon he's cost the British economy. Why? Because the little games that he packages with his Microsoft Windows operating systems consume countless thousands of man-hours annually. If it's not Solitaire then it's the game that this, Absolute Minesweeper, is based on.

Minesweeper, for those of you who use Apple computers or haven't evolved beyond the humble typewriter, is a game where you're tasked with uncovering hidden mines in a grid of squares. The squares are unmarked and you must reveal what's underneath them by clicking on them.

Click on an empty square and it'll disappear; you're fine. Click on a square containing a mine, however, and you'll be blown into the middle of next week. How can you tell if a square contains a mine or not? Well, that's where the challenge lies.

You see, any empty square that has a mine in one of the eight squares surrounding it will have a number in it. So, if an empty square displays a '1', then you know that of the eight surrounding squares, only one contains a mine. This enables you, by your esteemed powers of deduction, to figure out where the mines are by using the numbers in the empty squares.

When you think you've figured out where a mine is, you can mark it with a flag. This is done by pressing your phone's softkey. Flag up all the mines in the grid and you win, with points being awarded on your speed and your accuracy in flag-placing.

It's a relatively simple concept at heart but, like the best puzzle games, it's maddeningly compelling. It's a little bit like sudoku in this regard and shares many of the number-crunching aspects; Absolute Minesweeper is one of those games that'll give your old grey matter a good going over.

The control system is ideally suited to a phone, with you moving the cursor and uncovering squares with the directional pad. Unless you're riding on a very bumpy bus while playing, it's not going to see you wrong.

But if you can get Minesweeper for free on your PC, why buy it for your phone? It's something Digital Chocolate clearly thought about too, because Absolute Minesweeper not only features four different visual themes for the game, enabling you to ditch the boring grey Microsoft version, but offers up an alternative version of Minesweeper, too.

This is the Absolute Minesweeper of the title and while the changes aren't epic, they're small enough to make it a more entertaining game than it already was. By adding bonus items to be uncovered, the game becomes more light-hearted and gains an extra dimension.

The bonus items include added time (though you can still complete the level if the clock runs out), a shield that enables you to click on a mine-filled square without losing the level, and other devices that help you discern where the explosives are hidden.

Like we said, they're not revolutionary, but they do extend the life of the game. Considering that there's no reward to work towards, no goal for you to reach, it's a good job that they're there.

But Absolute Minesweeper isn't of those games that you're going to play from beginning to end, uninterrupted, anyway. You're going to dip into it every now and then like a box of chocolates.

You're going to continue costing your employer money too, because if your boss is wise to your time-wasting antics on your desktop PC, he or she might not be when it comes to your phone. And anything that helps you pass the time at work, even if it is harming the country's finances, is okay by us.