It’s difficult to try and strip away the typical tangram gameplay to determine quite what it is that makes NEVES special. In fact, it quickly becomes apparent that there isn’t anything particular bout this DS game that makes it anything more than an extensive tangram puzzle on the handheld console. And I’m more than happy to report that this is one of the best parts about it – embracing the age old, highly addictive puzzle concept without feeling the need to modernise, quantify, homogenise or distort it is a testament to the game’s inherent enjoyment.

I actually own a very old Japanese version of a tangram puzzle in an ornate lacquer box, and was therefore very keen to see how the game would be effectively digitised. It was likely to go in one of several directions; either we’d see a zany, brightly coloured “extreme to the max” sugar coating, or some derivation that indecorously bastardised the game beyond recognition. But the developer, Yuke’s, has admirably resisted the temptation to make its game anything other than an accurate, simple representation of the classic brain teaser – and NEVES (I’ve no idea what the name means, by the way) is a raw and fundamentally addictive success because of it.

The accompanying literature tells us the tangram originated in Japan in 1935, in a Hanayama game called “Lucky Puzzle”. It also states the game can be traced back as far as the Song Dynasty, which is a Chinese imperialist period beginning in the 10th Century. So, we’re left to deduce that the game at the core of NEVES was formed somewhere between 960 and 2008, probably in Japan, China or America. Hmmmm.

All garbled non-history aside, the fact remains that tangrams as we know them today represent the kind of engrossing, life-dissolving puzzle game that ranks up there with Tetris, Bust-a-Move, Rush Hour and the Rubik’s Cube, and to cut a long story short, your DS deserves to know it.

For those who aren’t familiar with the modern/ancient Japanese/Chinese puzzle, I’ll endeavour to explain, since NEVES is a picture perfect representation of the physical board game. Seven geometric shapes (of which two are repeated) must be arranged by the player to match a silhouette of an overall shape. Simple as that. In practice, however, the remarkable design means that figuring out which shape must go where to reform the overall picture can be incredibly mind-bending, and the ensuing infatuation with an almost complete picture is utterly unforgiving. A level on NEVES simply cannot be left undone – it’d be like not chewing a heroin flavoured Fruit Pastel.

NEVES sports an impressive 542 different silhouettes, which makes for hours and hours of tooth-gnashingly obsessive gameplay. Entirely stylus based, moving the pieces, rotating them and flipping them over to match the silhouettes is as simple and intuitive as the game concept itself. With four modes of play at your disposal, the small tweaks to the established concept also ensure there’s a suitably elevated challenge available to the growing geometric expert.

Standard play is simply a case of leisurely working your way through the silhouettes, while a timed version pits spatial architects against a clock – something that’s not easy to do with a physical set of tangrams (at least, not honestly). Another interesting mode is Seven Steps, which allows only seven moves to complete the picture. Only being able to pick up each piece once makes NEVES considerably more difficult, but also stimulatingly more analytical.

On top of this we’re given a two-player mode – entirely accessible with just one NEVES cartridge, so extra points to the developers for not being cheap. This multiplayer mode is simply a race to finish first, with an additional “Bragging Rights” mode in which the winner is the first to complete three tangrams, rather than just one. Excellent fun, and remarkably tense – testing your spatial acuity on the move.

Achievements, stats and records are stored in The Room, so looking back on your tangramatical career (I just made that word up, by the way. What?! Shakespeare used to do it!) is always an option.

The concept of tangram puzzles needed absolutely no spicing up, and NEVES shows great respect for the original game by providing it in a well presented, yet unadorned version ideally suited to the DS. Just as all handheld systems should sport some form of Tetris, they should also be equipped with a tangram game, and the mid-range price tag of 20 quid should be considered a worthy investment that’s guaranteed to rekindle your love affair with the dual screen delight.