Hamster Homie

Film buffs can keep their Citizen Kane, music lovers the seminal hits of S Club 7 - there's only one medium that gives you the opportunity to take on the role of two hamsters being put through a series of endurance tests in a laboratory.

On second thoughts, that might be for good reason.

Hamster Homie is one of the most interesting games you're ever likely to come across in terms of setting, but that doesn't necessarily translate when it comes to actual gameplay.

Talking hamsters or no talking hamsters, puzzlers that separate success from failure by the most minute of detail always run the risk of crossing a line along the way, and it's arguable Hamster Homie is just a little too testing for its own good.

Take the hamsters out of the equation – and, indeed, a couple of speech bubbles in you may well be inclined to do so – and Hamster Homie is a bit of a code cracker.

Your job is to ensure one of the pair makes it from the top of the screen to a platform towards the bottom, his only input being to walk left and right in rudimentary fashion as he falls from one ledge to the next.

The ledges are essentially under your control, each colour platform assigned to a number key.

Hit the corresponding key and all the platforms of that particular colour disappear from the map, the idea being to remove and reinstate platforms in a fashion that guides your furry friend past a number of checkpoints and, finally, to the exit post.

It's a setup that handles perfectly half the time, with failures purely as a result of experimentation or mistakes.

Other stages, however, are especially fussy, and you'll find your hamster misses platforms less because of a blatant missteps and more at random - seemingly due to a slightly suspect take on physics.

It's at times such as these that Hamster Homie shows its true colours, and carrying on your quest to prove vermin are not without substantial brains is called into question. Even cracking the particularly tricky stages isn't always fun.

Though levels increasingly come with complex design – with a wide array of objects to interact with along the way – Hamster Homie proves just a touch too exacting to be worthy of too much acclaim.