Today’s Xbox LIVE Arcade game promises Pac-Man-style gameplay with a moody twist – Geon: Emotions.

Actually, having just played the demo the 'emotional' tag seems a bit overstated, nevertheless we can see where they’re coming from. Basically players choose a Geon cube to control, each representing one of eight emotions – Bliss, Courage, Envy, Fear, Melancholy, Passion, Rage and Rapture – and each favouring a particular sort of ‘Powerball’, which are Geon’s main weapons. Gameplay types vary but are all based on the same principle, which is to roll around a series of increasingly complex transparent 3D grids collecting Powerballs and enough ‘Emotes’ (like Pac-Man dots) to fill a meter, which then enables players to flip the grip upside down and roll into their opponent’s goal to score a point. Got all that?

It’s not as simple as it first appears, though, for while you’re nibbling Emotes your opponent is trying to do the very same thing on the underside of the grid, which is where the emotional bit comes in. In short each Geon has a favourite Powerball that’s related to its type – thus Rage gets aggressive with the ‘Jump Bash’ which forces an opponent to drop any Emotes it’s carrying, Envy gathers up all nearby Emotes using the whirling ‘Vortex’, Courage makes best use of the ‘Super Shield’ and so on.

It’s not bad as these things go, and is probably totally nuts in the harder later levels, or when played versus real human players in splitscreen or four-way on Xbox LIVE. The 800 MS Point (£6.80) price tag seems about right too. Check out the free demo before splurging, though.