Puzzles

Logonoff is offering the puzzle/memory game Mnemonix over at the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.  Asides from being challenging to spell, Mnemonix tests your memory by having you match identical tiles that you reveal two at a time.

You have three gaming levels (easy, normal, and hard) and the number of tiles increase as you move up in difficulty. To make things more challenging, you try to match the tiles before the game clock expires. The easy level times out at about 34 seconds with the more difficult levels giving you a little more time. Yes, I know, 34 seconds seems a little odd but I checked it several times and time expires at odd intervals.

Mnemonix has just a few settings. You can turn off the vibration (each time you touch a tile, your phone vibrates) and if you need to practice without the pressure of the clock, you can turn that off as well. Mnemonix also offers three tile designs (two symbols and one numeric) to choose from.

Your final scoring is based on the number of moves it takes for you to match all the tiles, as well as your time. Mnemonix has a very clean, nice looking appearance and ran smoothly. There is a slight addictive quality to the game but nothing that keeps you glued to the game for hours.  The attraction is strong enough to keep you interested in Mnemonix for short periods of time.  It is a nice game to add to your Windows Phone that will add a little variety to your "pass the time with" gaming titles.

There is a free trial version available and the full version runs $1.29. You can find Mnemonix here (opens Zune) over at the Marketplace. Follow the break to catch a video of Mnemonix in action.

Remember the game Minesweeper that was always present on your Windows PC? Techtwaddle is offering a version of this game for Windows Phone 7. Bombsweeper puts this classic game on your Windows Phone and it doesn't stray too far from the original.

The game is played just like the PC version. You face a grid of tiles that has bombs hidden beneath them. Your job is to tag the tiles covering these bombs with red flags. Tap on a tile covering a bomb and it's game over. You narrow down where the bombs are by tapping random tiles to reveal numbers. The number represents the number of mines surrounding that particular tile. For example, if a tile shows 2 then two of the surrounding tiles have bombs under it. To help, if you tap and hold on a number animates the surrounding tiles giving you a visual aid in selecting the next tile to tap or mark with a flag.

The game ran smoothly but the controls can be a little on the tricky side. To flag a square, you tap and hold on a tile. On occasion, the "tap and hold" registered as a tap and boom...game over. Otherwise, Bombsweeper is hard to distinguish from the original Minesweeper.

If your a fan of the classic PC game, Bombsweeper will be an enjoyable addition to your Windows Phone game lineup. If you're not familiar with the classic game, there is a trial version available to let you try before you buy. The full version of Bombsweeper runs $.99.

You can find Bombsweeper here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace. And just make the jump past the break to see a short video demo of Bombsweeper.

Looking for a cool game for your Windows Phone? Something with a little twist? If so, check out the Windows Phone 7 game Shift2.

Shift2 is part platform game and part puzzle game. Your goal is to work your player from one side of the screen to a door that appears at various locations throughout the games levels. All in an effort to escape the experimental lab you're trapped inside.

The puzzle challenge comes into play because the route to the door is never direct. You have a shift button that will flip the screen, moving the floor to the roof. It turns towering obstacles into dangerous pits.

Follow the break to read more on Shift2 and to see a video of the game in action.

SPB Software isn't a stranger to Windows Phones. Offering a wide range of applications for Windows Mobile operating system, they have finally made the transition to Windows Phone 7. The software developers first venture with the new Windows Phone is to bring their bestselling game, SPB Brain Evolution 2 to WP7.

The popular puzzle, math, logic game offers 12 mini games that will test your concentration, speed and mental processing skills. It doesn't stray too far from the original SPB Brain Evolution we saw on Windows Mobile. If anything, the game seems to have become more challenging.

To read more on SPB's Brain Evolution, ease on past the break.

Glow Artisan was first released in December of 2009 as DSiWare for the ubiquitous Nintendo DSi handheld gaming device. It was received with fantastic reviews from nearly every critic and gamer to give it a go.

If anything, Glow Artisan is a bit overwhelming and fantastic. Powerhead Games has constructed a puzzle game with such depth and scale that every other game within the same genre has been put to shame. I mean, there are puzzle games and then there's Glow Artisan. A puzzle game's puzzle game. Now that Glow Artisan has been ported to WP7 as part of the library of Xbox Live Arcade games we'll have to see how well this puzzler translates to a single screen. So far, things look fantastically overwhelming.

Read on to find out why.

We ran across an interesting game for Windows Phone 7 over at the Marketplace. Plex is a 3D puzzle game where you try to match tiles to destroy blocks that are arranged on a multi-layered sphere.

When you drop a tile on top of a matching tile, the two are destroyed and points accumulated. Destroy all the tiles and you advance to the next level. The game has twenty-four levels and two game modes (Adventure and Survival) to keep things interesting.

Game play was a little challenging but you quickly get the hang of it.  You rotate the sphere around to highlight a place to set your game tile (which appears in the upper right corner).  Once the right spot is highlighted, then you tap the screen to drop the tile.  Tiles are eliminated by stacking tiles of the same color/symbol on top of one another.

The more I tinkered with Plex, the more addictive it became. The sound effects and graphic quality are above par and the application itself was very stable.

You can find Plex (link opens your Zune browser) over at the Marketplace for $1.99. There is a trial version available that will let you play just enough of the game to decide if it's worth purchasing.  Just don't be surprised if it doesn't take too long before you tap the "buy" button.

Ease on past the break for a video demo of Plex.