BEEzzz

It now seems to be accepted wisdom to sing the praises of the common bee while spitting venom on the wasp. Both sting, but somehow the bee is portrayed as the furry friend of all horticulture, while the wasp is lambasted as a shady character that consorts with hornets down dark alleys.

Sadly for wasp lovers, BEEzzz isn't a game that attempts to redress this misconception. You play as the eponymous bee, and rather than going around stinging happy children or innocent gardeners, you have to fly from flower to flower, having your pollenistically-wicked way.

The key to this rampant deblooming is matching the various colours of the flowers to gain points. BEEzzz manages to separate itself from just about every other colour/symbol matching puzzler with great aplomb however by being as much an action/adventure game as a puzzler.

The game is played from a top-down perspective, and while it would be going a little far to say BEEzzz is the first bee-based Grand Theft Auto clone, the airborne handling isn't a million miles away from a car.

Controls are absolute, in that pressing left always makes the bee veer westward rather than left in respect to the current direction, but your bee has a definite turning circle that means moves have to be planned to some extent. Cleverly, hitting the '5' key makes your bee instantly home-in on the nearest flower, meaning too many movement frustrations are avoided.

There are five flower colours, and once you've honed in on one flower and circled it for a second or so (which is done by simply holding the '5' key'), the flower is harvested. After this, all the possible combinations of follow-up colour combos are shown on-screen. Each combo is made up of four flowers, but you're not told which are the highest-scoring combos.

Indeed, working these out are one of the game's main joys. In addition, if executed within a certain amount of time, combos can be linked for score multipliers, which are an absolute prerequisite for gaining anything approaching an impressive score in BEEzzz.

To add to your problems, there's a timer at the bottom of the screen that's constantly being drained. Once it's gone, it's game over. It can be replenished by harvesting flowers and completing combos, though.

As for the world you fly around in, it's pretty enough, but one of BEEzzz's really strong points is the clarity of the interface. The way that possible combos are constantly listed makes the learning process completely intuitive.

Less praiseworthy is the game's lack of structure. There aren't levels in BEEzzz. Instead, each play takes place in a single environment, and progress is only gained when you beat your previous high score. Unfortunately, this limits the game experience somewhat, and for this reason, each game tends to only last for a couple of minutes. As each will be largely the same as the last - dependant on your own skill of course - BEEzzz isn't the ideal game for long journeys.

However, for quick gaming blasts, BEEzzz is hard to beat. It's fun, addictive and original. Without any proper level-based main mode, it certainly doesn't fully capitalise on the strengths of its interface and graphics, but it'll keep you busy for plenty of five minute sessions. No bee quips here.