THERE are some games which have great names and some great games with simple names. Rare is it indeed to find a game which boasts a splendid monicker and has sparkling gameplay. Nevermind is not one of those games.

Rather it is an exercise in tedium with a name that aspires to wit, yet is as sharp as a lump of clay and conjures up images of impoverished mothers patting a brattish child on the head in consolation that Santa did not after all bring the shiny new mountain bike that was in the window of Toys R Us.

Nevermind is a game which contains the spark of a good idea, but alas that spark has been trodden into the dirt in the galloping rush to produce some sort of game. This is an isometric 3D affair, a reprise of the style made famous by Ultimate some years ago. Unfortunately there the similarity ends, because Psyclapse, in a bid to advance the concept, has led it up a blind alley.

In general, each screen represents or contains a puzzle. Completion of the puzzle leads the player to the next screen. Gravity is orientated to whichever wall you happen to be walking on, which oft leads to much head twisting and turning in order to correctly align the character on screen.

The basic thrust of the game is to re-assemble a picture on one of the walls. Parts of the picture are scattered about all over the room. However, it is not such a simple a matter as walking from wall to wall carrying the pieces and dropping them into the correct psition. Instead there are teleport squares, and it is down to you to find the correct sequence of squares to travel around the room.

Pieces of pictures may already be in place, but in the wrong position, so identifying the form of the picture and then reassembling the elements in the correct order adds to the mental manoeuvring.

Neither is it as easy as picking up the pieces and dropping them on the picture once you have found the way to get to it. There are chess pieces which steal parts of the picture, causeways which dissolve, and horrible shifts in perception.

Some of the puzzles are quite easy and straightforward while others are tremendously tricky. After completion of a certain number a password is given so that the challenge can be taken up from there at the start of the next or any subsequent game.

If this all sounds quite interesting and subtly refreshing, all I can say is it could have been if it weren’t for two things. The first is that the time limit to complete a room is very tight. Even having watched the computer complete a room and then simply trying to replicate it in time is difficult enough. The terrible thing is that you are only graced with one life.

Well done Psyclapse, this isn’t a case of shooting yourself in the foot, it’s a case of blowing both feet right off.

Fresh from the glamour boys of packaging comes a rather meekly boxed piece of software. Unfortunately the accompanying game is also rather slight. Never Mind aims for that rather difficult area in computer gaming – puzzles. In order for a puzzle game to retain any lasting interest it needs to be outstandingly original with a playability level to match. Never Mind is without doubt original, but fails to fun hurdle by presenting problems which not only fail to tax the mind, but also cause a severe case of eye strain with it.

The object of the puzzles is to recreate a picture. Sometimes this involves picking pieces up and placing them in respective holes, like a jigsaw. Other puzzles require a close inspection of the picture to find which pieces need to be switched round. A set amount of the time limit can be 'cashed in' to give you a higher bonus score, though what little time there is, is too precious to loose. When you complete a set amount of levels the computer churns out a password allowing you to restart from that point in future, which is a very useful addition.

In an attempt to make the game more playable and appeal to a wider variety of people it utilises an arcade adventure style movement system, whereby you control a barbarian-like character to move the pieces around the screen. Instead of being restricted to just the floor space all the walls are linked to the ground through portals. The resulting effect leaves you wandering about aimlessly. One of the major problems is working out which walls can be reached from a certain point, so you tend to miss the obvious routes.

While sporting some nice 3D effects, the graphics are pretty crude, with most attention paid to the picture puzzles. That doesn’t add much to the overall game. Never Mind failed right from the moment I loaded it up. It’s too hard, too tedious and it’s repetitive. A poor example of a puzzler.