A - Long Term Shelf Life
B - Deserves Another Play
C - Once Should Suffice

KINGSLEY'S ADVENTURE

This cute little adventure/quest game has Kingsley, a brave little fox trotting around medieval settings warding off bad elements, collecting your bits and pieces and pushing on to victory. While it's pretty much cut out for the younger crowd, just like Spyro The Dragon, pretty much any age can jump in escape for a while - until you get hooked and determined to finish the quest at hand!

3 / C
- PB

KULA WORLD

In the event of you being in a less destructive mood, chilling out with this little corker will reap great rewards. The object of this marvelous experience is to roll a beach ball along airborne platforms (200 in all!). Clearing the fruit & goodies, dodging obstacles and beating the clock becomes obsessive. The structures become more and more elaborate and difficult. It's not mere flat surfaces floating in the air, but multiple levels which requires skillful jumping, or its over the edge, baby! The mellow soundtrack grooves along as you try and figure out how to get to the other end of a platform and still get to the solitary exit gateway at the other end...Sound confusing? Once you grasp the concept it is an engrossing, invigourating experience. This is one of the titles you need in your collection to ensure the maintenance of a good balance. Warning: The more you play this, the more you want to - time will fly by much quicker than you'd expect.

5 / A
- PB

...the 2nd Opinion...

KULA WORLD
Puzzle games always seem to be boring at first glance. They can end up being the most addictive - remember Tetris and Kurushi? What sets Kula World apart is the 3-D aspect. And let me tell you, this 3-D goes in all directions. Maze-like platforms suspended in the sky hold fruit and keys to be collected by a colourful beachball rolling and bouncing along the surface. Time limits make it a nail-biting race, confusing you all over the place if multiple platforms are involved. What's worse is, these platforms have four sides, so finding the exit in time can sometimes drive you up the wall; only to want to beat the bastard and try again. With great themed areas and accompanying music, this could actually be a stress reliever (unless you're stuck at a level and can't get out - there are about 200 of them!). Superb fun which also has a 2 player mode.

6 / A
- PB

KURUSHI

Do you remember the days when you got a glimpse of Tetris and wondered what the hell the point is? And before you knew it, you couldn't stop playing? Well, Kurushi might just be that new addiction... The object of the game is fairly simple: You're a little figure running about on a huge platform with 16 ton marble blocks edging its way towards you and an abysmal drop. By highlighting the floor blocks of your choice, you de-activate these heavy crushers when they land on your selected spot. There are forbidden cubes, which destroy a section of your stage when deactivated and advantaged cubes that enable you to wipe out 8 surrounding blocks. Sounds boring, but believe me, once you get into it you'll be a raving maniac trying to hit Stage 8 - like I tried. Here, a memory card would prove to be essential, because Stage 7 keeps annihilating you and starting from scratch could prove to be damn frustrating. I played for 6 hours straight (!) and returned at 5 the next morning after a Halloween party to continue - bad idea. And this was on the easiest setting! Don't be discouraged when your IQ calculation pops up at around 8 most of the time while you're getting the hang of it - it will improve. The graphics are plain but smooth and effective. The music is a great epic/adventure mixture, with choir voices and eerie sound FX. Take on Kurushi and you could be facing your new drug...

5 / A
- PB

I strongly feel that music, movies and TV shows play a great part in reminiscence of our lives. PlayStation games have been added to that list. Pac-Man, Xevious and other Namco re-issues take us all back to the arcade or corner café of our youth, the people we knew, the good & bad times, mischief, romance. Playing this sequel to Kurushi immediately transported me back to my old flat in Bordeaux, Seapoint. I loved that place (till they sold it). I remembered playing the first Kurushi, getting totally addicted (once I got the logic behind it) as well as sitting in the darkened lounge the night I got Resident Evil 2 getting the shit scared out of me. Great memories (and some crappy ones I won't get into right now - in fact, seriously hectic! - But we all survive…), not only of games but just the general joy and privilege of living by the coast in Cape Town, South Africa. But, I digress. In case you have no clue what Kurushi's about, you control a character running around on a platform with gigantic blocks slowly rolling towards you - you highlight panels on the floor and as a block strikes it, you press again and it disappears - the object: clear all blocks. Simple, straight forward, but damn addictive, exciting and atmospheric - exercising your pip and not merely your hand-eye co-ordination. For a more in depth description, check out its review on this site. Kurushi Final has several new features like Create, where new barrages of blocks constantly appear just as you're about to clear your one section. Very tense. You can also pick from a variety of block textures and there are now several ranging characters to unlock as you finish all the levels. Difficulty settings get serious, well, for the serious player of course. The Survival Mode has a cool 2 player function so your pals don't get bored as you're nailed to the screen, playing by yourself. Finishing all the levels also give you a beautiful unfolding ending that is a tranquil, beautiful, peaceful and positive reward. I always maintain that these kind of puzzle games are a fresh, welcome experience between all the hectic violence most games give us (no matter how much we love those).

6 / A
- PB