Countdown

You shouldn't, but you would, wouldn't you? You would as well, you dirty sod. So who's at the top of your list? I am of course talking about the strange attraction to certain celebrities, who, while not conventionally attractive, are desirable nonetheless.

Carol Vorderman is synonymous with this phenomenon, just as she's synonymous with the show that made her famous. But is Gameloft's version of the immemorial Channel 4 quiz show Countdown a brainy stunner or a game that can't sustain its appeal, despite good bone structure and an expensive wardrobe?

Let's take a look. There are three modes of play: Practice, Quick Match and TV show. You'll spend most of your time in the last of these, progressing through regional and national heats before you get the chance to be crowned Countdown champion.

In the Letters round you have to try and make the longest word possible from nine selected letters, and in the Numbers round you must calculate the correct sum from six numbers. The D-pad is used for selecting vowels/consonants and any other cursor movements. If you make a mistake you can press the '0' key to undo your last move. It's a breeze to use and won't leave you puzzled.

Each round lasts thirty seconds, but to speed things up you have the option to submit your answer at any point. It's a handy feature that stops the game from losing any pace, which is vital considering the mobile format.

Gameloft has a solid reputation for producing titles with strong visuals, and the presentation here is generally very good. Granted, Des O'Connor does look like a ventriloquist's dummy when he starts talking, but the menus and in-game graphics are suitably polished. The sound on the other hand suffers slightly, with muffled voice samples that are difficult to understand.

Countdown claims to have an adaptive difficulty setting that automatically adjusts to your level of skill, but we sailed through the TV show mode without losing once. Reaching the grand finale, it was quite baffling to see the opponent (an Oxford graduate) use 'RTSA' as a four letter word. What were they doing at university, a degree in stupidity? ('Zing' – Ed)

There are a few other gripes with the game. In the Conundrum round, if your opponent buzzes in and gets it wrong, you don't have the opportunity to guess yourself. This could be extremely frustrating if your match depended on it. Also, a mid-game save function would have been useful, but as it stands you have to wait until the match ends before you can record your progress.

Ultimately, it's the disappointing AI that stops Countdown from scoring higher. The computer opponents submit at least two made-up words during the course of a single match, and that's on the hardest difficulty level! There is some replay value with the Practice mode (solving conundrums is a lot of fun) and Carol looks pretty damn hot in 2D, but you'll soon be craving some decent competition in the main segment of the game.