Super Jewel Quest

Let's face it - jewel-matching games and their ilk come along about as regularly as new reality TV shows and Hollyoaks omnibuses and, as a result, it's hard to get too fired up about them. The thing is though - like every new Celebrity Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me out of Here series, they might sound like all the rest but give them a chance and they're actually completely addictive.

Hence Super Jewel Quest is a bit like watching Paul Burrell up to his elbows in rats and cockroaches and squealing like he's being slowly dunked into a tank of anatomy-shrinking icy water. It's not immediately appealing, but you'll soon be putting in the hours like you would if faced with the possibility of Burrell losing a few fingers to those rats.

There have been several Jewel Quest games before this one - Jewel Quest, Jewel Quest II, Jewel Quest 3D to be precise (that's a lot of bling) - but this is the first one with the word 'super' in its title. However, it's a quite reasonable prefix because this is a more comprehensive Jewel Quest than those that have gone before it.

For starters, unlike most puzzle games which - arguably wisely - decide to ditch the plot and just tell the player to match up same-coloured tiles and the like, this game comes complete with a vague African-themed jewel-based plot and various AI boss characters. And it presents you with a character to play as - one who looks suspiciously like a young Indiana Jones.

So basically you're not just entering one grid of jewels after another with the sole goal of clearing the grid or getting X number of points - as you did in the original internet Jewel Quest. In one level you might need to reveal some buried treasure, in another you'll be trying to turn 70 per cent of the grid gold before your opponent manages to.

Meanwhile, collecting the coins on the grid gives you new power-ups, so a simple one-block clearing hammer power-up will soon evolve into one that clears numerous squares.

Just to back up for one minute and explain the basics of Jewel Quest though - just in case there are a few people out there, the equivalents of the ones who don't own televisions (can you imagine?) and don't actually know what Big Brother is - it's a very simple puzzler which calls for you to move jewels about on a grid so you're matching up three (or more) in a row. Do that and they disappear, giving you points and also causing other jewels on the grid to shift and possibly line up in threes and disappear too.

The challenge comes from the fact you can only make a move if it will clear some jewels, and also that you're up against a time limit. Once the clock at the top of the screen has counted down, it's level over and finding clusters of three jewels isn't always easy.

It also wouldn't be all that exciting were it presented just as 100+ levels to get through. But Super Jewel Quest throws boss battles and one-off challenges into the mix, which means the playing field is always changing slightly. The further you get into the game, the tougher they get, forcing you to learn their tactics of clearing entire grids with one clever move.

There's no denying this is a game you'll feel like you've played many times before, but that doesn't really detract from the fact Super Jewel Quest is a very nicely put together game which you'll happily while away the hours playing. Don't expect there to be killer rats though, or you'll be sorely disappointed.