Bejewelled by PopCap Games

Bejewelled (also spelled Bejeweled and also known as Diamond Mine) by PopCap Games is a simple but highly addictive game which appeals to all ages and is similar to the better known game Tetris in some ways.

The premise is quite simple - you have a grid full of jewels and have to create horizontal and vertical lines of 3 or more jewels of the same shape and colour in order to remove them from the grid. As with Tetris (and our own QWord), as you remove jewels, those above the removed ones fall down to fill the spaces in the grid. Any lines of three jewels are automatically removed as they fall, which means that you can get quite a high score in one move, through the cascade effect. New jewels are automatically added to ensure that the grid is always full - the more jewels that you remove at the same time, the higher the score which you will receive.

You move jewels either by clicking on two adjoining jewels with the mouse, or clicking and dragging a jewel into its new location - you can only move them one space (horizontally or vertically) by swapping two jewels, and if you do not make a set of 3 jewels, then the two jewels return to their original position.

As you clear jewels from the screen, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find sets of three (remember, no diagonals are allowed). However, you can progress to a new screen by getting the progress bar at the bottom of the screen across to the right hand side. This bar moves across as you clear jewels, but asking for a hint (by clicking on the large purple button) moves the bar to the left as does making incorrect moves. Once the progress bar reaches the right hand side, you move onto a higher level - the higher the level, the more jewels you need to clear in order to get the bar across the screen.

Play is fast and furious, and the full version allows you to store your high scores, play against the clock (this decreases the length of the progress bar as you play). There is a demo version which you can download, which limits the number of games which you can play, but lets you get a feel for the game in general.

There are even added benefits to this type of game - it can help with hand eye co-ordination for the youngsters and keep an elderly brain active - as it is basically matching colours (although you can match shapes instead), it can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter what your age.

Versions are available for Windows, Macintosh, Palm Pilot and Pocket PC handhelds, (although beware that it is sometimes referred to as "Diamond Mine" on the PopCap website). You can even try out a more basic Java version on their website, or play the game against another player through MSN Messenger v6.0. All versions include some good sound effects and background music on the downloads.

At a cost of around £15, this is a snip for a game which all of the family will enjoy and comes highly recommended.