Puzzles

Gears hit the Windows Phone Marketplace a short bit ago and if you like puzzle games, you've gotta check it out.

The game premise has you completing the connection between two gears and provide power to the bronze gear. Sounds simple but you have a limited number of various sized gears to work with and at times you are required to turn the bronze gear a certain way. To add to the challenge you have this pesky little thing called gravity that won't allow you to place your connecting gears just anywhere.

The game screen has your connecting gear inventory displayed at the bottom, a reset button and your current level.  Once you accomplish connecting the two gears, you advance to the next level.

Gears has one hundred levels of play, with more on the way, and the only nit I can find with Gears is with how the levels are displayed.  As is, the screen looks crowded and you need a magnifying glass to read the numbers.

Regardless, Gears is an entertaining, addictive, well presented game. Graphics are great, sound effects nice and the game ran smoothly.

There is a free trial version available for Gears that has the first twenty levels of play available. The full version of Gears will run you $1.99 and you can download either here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Looking for an interesting game for your Windows Phone? Shut The Box is being offered over at the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace that is an Old English puzzle game.  It's a simple, yet challenging game.

You have your box, a pair of dice, and tiles (or shutters) numbered one through nine. The object of the game is to turn down all the tiles. You do so by rolling the dice and turning down the corresponding tiles that equal the sum of each roll. When you roll the dice with a sum that won't drop any tiles, game over.

It's a simple game that has a Yahtzee feel to it. Shut the Box has fantastic graphics and is an enjoyable way to pass the time with. Shut The Box also includes a statistics page so you can evaluate your performance and a settings page that includes a Move Hints settings. This is a good feature to help you learn the game strategy.

There is no trial version for Shut The Box and the full version will run you $.99. You can purchase the game here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

Z Games, developers of Bubble Burst, is offering Pandemic over at the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. As described by the developer, Pandemic has swarms of cute little viruses are invading your world and your objective is to stop them.

Pandemic is a colorful puzzle game where you have to match three or more viruses in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. Viruses can be moved freely around the board to create these combinations as long as the path is clear (they can't jump other viruses). The Bejeweled-like game has two different game modes, Pandemic and Zen. Pandemic Mode is a fast paced game that has your racing the clock while the Zen is a more relaxed, no pressure game.

To help you along the way there are a few bonus items (bombs and rainbow viruses) that will help you destroy more viruses.  The game includes online leaderboards and a lengthy glossary defining each virus, covering the virus's gender, likes, dislikes and general description.

After playing Pandemic for a short period, I found it to be an entertaining, mildly addictive game. Graphics are nice and the game ran smoothly.

Pandemic is a free game and is available here (opens Zune) over at the Marketplace.