So you bought an Xbox 360 and I bet you can't wait to get a disc into that drive and start on your road to next-gen HD obsession, right? And I don't blame you, what with the likes of Project Gotham Racing 3, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power and a fair few other must have games and quality titles all fighting for your attention. But before you plunge into any of those, if you shelled out on the premium system I'd strongly advise you to take the time to poke around on the hard drive to discover the pre-loaded contents lurking within. There's a bunch of gamer pictures on there, along with loads of "hip" videos and music; however, the one pre-loaded gem that I bet countless gamers have overlooked is Hexic HD, which was conceived by none other than Alexey Pajitnov.

If the name doesn't ring a bell then shame on you, because it should. Mr. Pajitnov created Tetris back in 1985, a game that was later snapped up by Nintendo, bundled in with the original Game Boy in 1989 and became the handheld's second best-selling game to date, and the third best-selling game ever, on any console. So Hexic HD has a hell of a lot to live up to and, let's be frank, not many puzzle games have even come close to surpassing Tetris, let alone actually accomplishing that feat. Luckily, Hexic manages to provide a puzzle experience that all Xbox 360 owners should at least try out, if not become utterly addicted to and spend countless hours on (my girlfriend falls into this category).

Hexic is actually reminiscent of Bejeweled. In that game players have to switch two square tiles at a time to form either rows or columns of three like-coloured tiles. Upon doing this the tiles disappear, causing other titles to fall down, possibly (and hopefully) causing chains of disappearing tiles and big point combos. Hexic adjusts this simple idea by having you rotate groups of three hexagonal tiles (hence the name) at a time. Again, if three or more tiles of the same colour come into contact with each other, they disappear and other tiles fall in from the top of the screen to replace them, while all tiles above those that have vanished fall down, often causing a massive cascade of vanishing pieces. Hexic goes a bit further in a bid to increase its depth by tossing in special puzzle pieces that increase your score and trigger events.

Firstly, there are tiles that contain a star; matching these to the same colour tiles gives you a multiplier and matching three star tiles together (regardless of colour) earns you a points bonus, as well as clearing all nearby tiles, whether they're colour matched or not. Second up are the bomb tiles, each with a number on them starting at nine. Every time you rotate a set of tiles, the bomb tile ticks down by one number and if the number on any bomb tile reaches zero, the game ends - so you have to get rid of these as quickly as possible! Furthermore, causing normal, star and bomb tiles of the same colour to disappear in one piece rotation causes all tiles of that colour in the whole playing area to disappear. Additionally there are further tile types that come into play by fulfilling certain tasks. By surrounding one tile (let's say blue) with six tiles of the same colour (let's say yellow), the surrounded tile transforms into what's called a starflower tile, which can be used to rotate all six tiles surrounding it simultaneously. And by surrounding a tile with six starflower pieces you form an elusive black pearl tile, which helps you to rack up seriously big scores - creating your first starflower and black pearl pieces earns you two of the game's twelve achievements.

There are three modes in Hexic HD and each offers up a unique style of play that requires a certain degree of strategy in order to come out on top. Marathon mode is the same as it's been in every puzzle game ever made; you simply make tiles disappear and create combos for as long as you can - the game ends only if a bomb tile detonates. Timed mode has the same formula, only a timer slowly ticks down to zero and you need to quickly create combos in order to add more time onto the clock. Survival mode does away with the tiles automatically falling down to replace matched tiles as you clear them; you need to clear as many tiles as possible until there are no moves left to be made, at which point the play area fills with new tiles and all the tiles left over become unusable unless pulled into chain reaction combos.

As mentioned earlier, Hexic HD supports the Achievements system where you're awarded Achievements and Gamerpoints for meeting certain criteria. There are twelve achievements available giving a total of two hundred gamerpoints (the standard for all Xbox Live Arcade games) which are unlocked by accomplishing feats such as creating rings or clusters of either starflower or black pearl tiles, racking up a combined score of one million points across all your played games, performing set numbers of combos or meeting certain scores in a single game in each of the modes. While a couple of these achievements are a piece of cake to fulfil, the majority of them are very difficult, which further add to the game's deceptively deep nature and will no doubt keep Amsterdam's videogame rehabilitation centre in business for years. [He's not kidding - only the most elite and persistent of gamers will get those three and six black pearl achievements! Frustrate-Ed].

When it comes to presentation, Hexic HD is adequate if nothing special. The playing area is clear and the tiles are bright, colourful and visually pleasing, although some of the colours aren't as distinct as they could have been, which can cause frustrating mistakes to be made. The sound leaves a lot to be desired; the music is strange and boring while the sound effects are pretty uninspiring. Granted it's a puzzle game and there's only so much you can do with it aurally, but I'll just say that the Xbox 360's ability to stream music from my PC has been a more than welcome feature while I've been passing the hours playing Hexic. My only other gripe is more with the Xbox 360's controller than Hexic itself - I found that neither the analogue stick nor the d-pad is particularly good for moving the cursor around to select the tiles I want to rotate; the d-pad is nowhere near responsive enough while the stick all too often has you moving the cursor in completely the wrong direction. After many hours of play I've managed to adjust and have grown accustomed to using the d-pad. You may have to take the time to get used to the controls or you may not, as while I had a tough time at first, my girlfriend picked up the controller and started playing with no problems whatsoever.

Taking the game's noble pedigree into consideration, I expected something pretty damn special when I discovered Hexic HD on my brand new Xbox 360's hard drive. The fact that so many people probably have no idea the game even exists on their consoles is a crime, as it's one of the most addictive puzzle games ever made, even if it does have a few minor shortcomings that may hinder your enjoyment a little. However, there's no reason why you shouldn't have a whale of a time with it. After all, it's simple, fun, deep and you paid absolutely nothing for it, which always makes sweet things even sweeter. Try and tear yourself away from shooting people in the face and careening around photo-realistically rendered city streets and take some time to enjoy Hexic HD, even if it's only for a brief respite in between intense online battles!

Reviewed by Mark Reece for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).