Neighbors From Hell is about as welcome as fart in an elevator. Appropriate since the game actually arrived with fart powder and other gags to complement the onscreen shenanigans of Woody, our hapless hero who must pull pranks on the neighbors to get them out of his life for good.

The game is referred to as "Beadles About" meets "Big Brother" might not mean much to the readers in North America but to those of us in the UK, it's not a good thing.

What you may not know is that this game already died a horrible death on the PC two years ago. Releasing it now onto an unsuspecting public is like having a sex offender move in next door without having your wits about you.

Neighbors is a puzzle game where you must use gags in sequences to reach your objective - which always involves driving your neighbors crazy with gags which then sets off canned laughter and applause. Unfortunately the puzzles are very oblique and more trial and error than anything. You can get hints but often they don't tell you much.

The interface leaves much to be desired and is really nothing more point and click to get the gags rolling. In theory this could work, but the gags aren't amusing even slightly and the whole game becomes pointless. Since I'm a young adult woman living on my own in London, I thought and rightfully so that this game was not directed at my gender nor my age group so I let my neffy Adrian play the game to see his reaction. Adrian's 7 years old and if there is anything funnier than a fart to boys his age, I haven't seen it. Adrian didn't like it either although he did find it more engrossing than I did. After 15 minutes he asked to turn it off and play checkers. There's your review right there.

The screenshots look amazing and they do a great justice to the actual game you'll see on your telly. The game features a claymation look about it and it does look rather shiny, but it comes off much more stilted when you play it, rather than look at a picture of it.

Adrian had a lot of fun playing with the fart powder and other gags that showed up with the press material, but sadly the game failed to capture his imagination for long. I don't know if JoWood has it in them to unleash this on you North American's but if they do, don't say I didn't warn you. For those of you in the UK, Neighbors From Hell 2 is underway....Bullocks.