This is just what the world needs – another Arkanoid clone. But what! This one has an added twist! It, erm, lets you control the ball. A bit. Ahem.

In Diamond Fever, instead of using a bat to control the ball as you bounce it off various coloured blocks, you can use a joystick to direct it. The object of the game is still to remove all the coloured blcoks from the screen, although that alone won’t allow you to progress to the next level.

The blocks protect diamonds and it’s only when these have been removed that you can move on.

You must avoid colliding with tombstone bricks as these mean instant death. Furthermore, you can only remove one colour of brick at a time, but if you hit a brick marked with a brush icon, the colour which you can remove changes to match that brush.

Unfortunately, not all the colours of brick on a particular screen will be accompanied by an appropriately coloured brush. When this happens you’ll start with the ability to remove bricks of the colour in question, but should you accidentally catch a brush brick, you’ll need to restart the level in order to complete it.

If all this sounds a tad confusing, rest assured it’s very easy to pick up. However, I did find Diamond Fever to be rather frustrating at times because catching a brush brick before you’re ready to change colours is all too easily done.

Still, if you like your puzzle games to be on the tricky side you’ll enjoy this enormously, and with 100 levels it should certainly provide a long term challenge.