Spin Jam, published by Empire for PlayStation.

Spin Jam is no ordinary puzzler - it is the cutest and most colourful game anywhere.

Spin Jam is a lot like Bust-a-Move. You fire a stream of coloured balls from a fixed catapult, and have to get three of the same colour to touch one another. When this happens, the coloured balls on the other side of the rotating disc fire off into corresponding targets. When all the targets are eliminated, you go onto the next level.

Whilst playing the game you have to beware of the contaminated grey balls because when these balls reach the centre of the disk it is 'game over'.

There are a few modes in Spin Jam such as arcade mode which puts you in a seemingly endless array of levels. In story mode you can select one of the cuddly characters and work your way from planet to planet trying to finish their story. Also in this mode you get to see the different character backgrounds which you don't see in arcade mode. Other modes are time trial and two player battle mode.

The graphics in this game are very simple but they certainly make the most out of colour.

The music on this game is a little frustrating and repetitive so you are better off turning the sound down and playing some of your own music if you can.

Graphics: 3/5

Sound: 2/5

Gameplay: 4/5

Lifespan: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

TOM DAKER

Dino Crisis, published by Virgin Interactive for PC

THE PlayStation monster muncher gets a fairly basic transfer to the PC, with dinosaurs galore getting loose on a distant island, and only a small group of survivors left to try and find out what happened before making their escape.

Full of frights and jumps, Dino Crisis doesn't quite match up to the high calibre of the Resident Evil series, also produced by programmers Capcom, but it is certainly a different take on the genre for fans of Jurassic Park. Certainly, your first encounter with a Tyrannosaurus Rex is one to make you jump out of your skin.

Overall 3/5

STEPHEN HUNT