If you are picking up Empire Interactive's Pipe Mania for graphical prowess, you're barking up the wrong tree. In its own right, however, Pipe Mania actually looks great. The game's visuals come across in a somewhat cartoony nature, and the characters and staging of the dialogue appear with an almost Flash-like style. These graphics may not be flashy, or come fully equipped with realism, but for a game like Pipe Mania, it is perfect.

On the audio block, Pipe Mania sounds great too. Again, don't expect some sort of amazing soundtrack, but what is present in this title works perfectly for this type of game, and it matches the visual style perfectly. The Menu and in-game music is not distracting in any way either, and helps keep the simplicity of the puzzle game that Pipe Mania is. The sound fx may not be grand, but each will give you an appropriate audio clue to go with the visual cues that you need when trying to master a simple game like this.

Did I say simple? On its surface, Pipe Mania is extremely basic in both design and function. However, it won't take long to realize that this puzzle game begins to get more and more complicated, and at the same time, more and more addictive.

Pipe Mania starts you out by taking simple pieces of pipe - straight and corner pieces - that you'll need to connect from the start position to the end position before all of the "Flooze" (the game's term for the liquid, trains, and other flowing things) leaks out. No biggie, right? After a set time, the Flooze will begin to flow, and if you don't connect your pipes quickly enough, the Flooze Meter will fill and the game will be over. There are brief moments when you will have time to fix these leaks, but generally more than a couple of them will cost you the game.

Just about the time that you start to get the gist of the gameplay, Pipe Mania begins to throw more pipe pieces in your way, starting with cross-over pipes and eventually even getting into areas that you will need to direct the Flooze through pre-built sections that speed or slow the flow. After a short while, the pipes turn into train tracks (which is a bit odd, considering the name of the game is Pipe Mania), and you'll have to direct these Flooze Trains in the same manner, but the complication level begins to grow exponentially. With the trains, you have the ability to reuse sections of track, so looping your trains back around is sometimes the saving grace that you need to direct them to the end goal. Multiple trains (or other future Floozes) also come into the mix, raising some hairs as you balance track-laying time between them.

Oh, did I mention that there is also a time limit to do all of this? You'll gain bonus points for using less time, speeding up the flow (when you hold a button after your path has been laid out fully), directing the Flooze through special pieces, and creating loop-backs, among other things. Unfortunately, you'll also be forced to deal will a bully who likes to destroy, causing you to have to fix leaking pipes, for example, to prevent your Flooze Meter from overflowing. On the flip side, you'll also be penalized for certain things like destroying pieces or having extra sections on the board when you finally complete a level. There is also the ability to play multiplayer games both cooperatively and competitively, and there are over 300 levels included in the game.

Pipe Mania is a very entertaining title, and the level of difficulty varies from extremely easy at the onset to a fairly difficult game as you delve deeper into the action. It's certainly not to say that Pipe Mania is impossible (I've played some puzzle games that felt like it at times), but once the number of shapes increases, and when the built-in obstacles start getting in the way, it's safe to say that you'll have to replay some levels over again to finally complete them.

Each level also seems to have its own personality, and the addition of the random, cycling pieces adds both a smile and a frown to your face. These pieces will cycle through all available sections, which come as a great relief when you are hoping for one specific section in particular, but it doesn't seem to be coming down the pipe (no pun intended... well, maybe just a little). However, when it's crunch time, and the timer is running down or your Flooze is starting to ooze, the slowness of waiting for your needed piece can feel like an eternity.

The biggest challenge of Pipe Mania is that you need to find a balance between simply completing each level with the bare minimum and scoring points by laying out a more intricate network for your flowing Flooze. Once you find that balance for the particular level that you are working on, the game will not be nearly as hard, nor that frustrating.

Pipe Mania is about as simple as a game can be in this day and age. You'll move the pieces with the directional pad/stick, and place them with the press of a button. There is no ability to rotate the pieces, so you'll need to really plan ahead while keeping an eye on both the level timer and the timer for when the Flooze starts to flow. There are different methods of scoring bonuses as well, so the frustration level of Pipe Mania is completely self-fulfilling. If you choose to shoot the moon and go for big scores, you'll really need to plan and have a little luck on your side to get the sections that you need when you need them.

There is very little to say about disappointments with Pipe Mania. Of course, this title is available on PC or even the Nintendo DS, so it may be an even better experience there, simply for the sake that (I'm assuming) you can use a mouse or stylus, respectively. The only real complaint that I had with the game was that the list of upcoming sections showed the current piece in play at the bottom of the list, and for whatever reason, it was hard to get into my head that it wasn't the next piece in the list, which I felt would have been more intuitive. Normally something like this isn't that big of a deal, but when you are faced with a timer, small things like that make a difference.

The gameplay is so incredibly simple, yet ever so addictive, that Pipe Mania is a fun relief from the serious games that stampede the market. There is also a certain amount of replay value involved for those who like to challenge themselves due to the nearly infinite possibilities when it comes to path-laying, and mastering bonuses can be a nice challenge in itself. Anyone out there who enjoys puzzle games, especially ones that take quick reflexes and some minor thinking, will likely fall in love with Pipe Mania.