Fantasy sells these days, whether it's the cinematic successes of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or the eager anticipation that greets every new book and movie starring everyone's favorite teen wizard Harry Potter.

Fantasy also serves as the theme and backdrop for Sparkle, the latest in a long line of games to be inspired by marble-shooters like Zuma and Luxor. While Sparkle isn't as radical of a departure from the Zuma/Luxor mold as other games (Sky Patrol comes to mind), the handful of fantasy-themed twists definitely work in its favor.

In Sparkle, a darkness has fallen over Crowberry Woods (and in fantasy terms, of course, darkness refers to some vague menacing presence as opposed to something as simple as the sun going down). It's your goal to reclaim the forest one step at a time by turning back the tide of colored orbs that wind their way around the screen. If the orbs reach the hole in the ground at the end of their journey, its game over, but by controlling a spinning rune-covered orb launcher, you can shoot orbs of your own into the chain to make at least three orbs of the same color touch, which causes them to disappear.

As the game progresses, the boards get increasingly twisty and challenging, the speed of the marching orbs increases, and additional colors are introduced to make the orb chain more complex.

While Sparkle obviously borrows heavily from past games in the genre - Zuma in particular - it does bring some fun innovations to the table:

Progress is recorded on an overhead map of Crowberry Woods, and at certain points the map branches into multiple directions so you have a choice of which area to visit next. The levels themselves are all given cool fantasy-esque names like Walk of the Unwilling, Lands of Irony, and my personal favorite: Blueberry Drain - a level consisting of a spiral canal with a blueberry-colored stain lining the bottom of it.

There are numerous power-ups in the game that function like magic spells. These appear randomly on the screen, and in order to use them you must first hit them with an orb. Some power-ups deploy instantaneously and will perform useful tasks like moving the entire chain backwards, releasing bolts of light that rain down and destroy random orbs, or launching a beam of light that destroys the orbs closest to the hole. Other power-ups you get to control yourself with the launcher, such as the joker orb which matches with any color, color powder that can be sprayed on a group of orbs to make them all the same color, and a frost beam which destroys orbs in whatever direction you aim it in.

Sparkle is very similar to our free online game of Bongo Balls where you have a central stationary shooting platform and you knock out colored orbs from a moving line. The skill is to get rid of all the orbs before they snake along to an exit point.

While this sounds fairly easy, the whole game becomes harder and harder as you progress through each level. Sparkle introduces excellent powerups to the normal marble shooting game with special amulets that give greater powers.

"Sparkle Is afun experience. I think this game is a great example of a simple fun game with all the pieces in the right position. It also has a certain dark feel to it which makes it unique. Some of the sounds are a bit weird and the graphics are on the darker side. But that's all good! It's not your run of the mill stuff so it keeps things more interesting. This is a worthy follower of Zuma. If you enjoy this type of game you should enjoy this too. There is quite a lot to play and some hidden stuff to find."- shoot-em-up-sam

"Review of Sparkle - Magically addictive. The game is really nice, the music and the graphics are so beautiful, Dowload the trial, I think you will want this one on your 'buy' list." - Grinning Gamer

" Remember Zuma? Sparkle is just as fun! If Zuma is one of your favorite games (it was one of mine) then you will absolutely love this game. When you play the adventure portion of the game, you play levels that are along a path on a map. You come to crossroads where you pick the direction. Along the way you win amulets that give you different skills. There are hidden secrets sprinkled throughout the game. I've played for over a month now and still haven't found all the secrets. I look forward to finding more of them. There are 3 game modes. The adventure portion (where once you finish it, it starts immediately over on the expert level), a race the clock portion and a survival mode. The game is wonderful! The sound effects are crisp and exciting. This was well worth the money and is a game I keep returning to." - Desktop Game Collector

Classified as a puzzle game, Sheep's Quest is a mix of arcade action and logical brainteasers wrapped in the veneer of a coin-collecting mission to acquire the needed funds to rebuild a dilapidated farm for the world's fluffiest sheep. Avoiding, in the process, the requisite collection of enemies and obstacles. The end result is a charming romp filled with sheep thrills and woolly, lemming-like, follow-the-leader antics.

Offering a single play mode consisting of 85 timed levels to solve across seven worlds with six enemies and 30 obstacles to avoid, a half-dozen bonuses to employ and 17 farm upgrades to earn, Sheep's Quest has enough shear enjoyment packed within to keep you busy for quite a while. And the gist is simple, too. Help the aforementioned critters rebuild their homestead by guiding them through each level in an effort to collect enough coins to pay for the requisite renovations.

Levels begin very easy as you learn the sheep wrangling ropes, herding them through each maze-like puzzle by placing arrows on the ground to steer the adorable, fluffy creatures away from obstacles and enemies and toward the coins to be collected, maneuvering them onto jump pads that will hurl them across gaping chasms, over switches that power mighty fans, onto plungers that detonate devastating explosives and into waiting vehicles that transport them to the next segment of the maze. Impediments such as falling boxes, crumbling bridges and rolling boulders must be avoided or triggered properly to advance your sheep and thwart the baddies.

Being a shepherd of sorts, however, is not all cut and dry. A good deal of forethought is required for these sheep to reach their destination. As mentioned earlier, each level is timed. Take too long to reach the exit and you'll run out of time and have to start over. The same holds true if you lose too many sheep. Though not an issue early on, these concerns becomes significant factors as you progress further into the game.

Cute graphics, very easy to learn and play and extremely funny in places.

The object of this game is to help a group of sheep to collect enough coins to restore their down-at-heel farm while avoiding assorted enemies and hazards throughout the 85 levels. To do this you must place arrows in strategic positions to guide the sheep along "safe" routes towards the "Finish" point. The arrows will also guide the sheeps' enemies either into areas where they can be safely kept away from the sheep or into the various traps and pits so they're destroyed. This is NOT as easy as it sounds - especially in the higher levels. I've lost count of the number of times I've forgotten to reverse the direction of a crucial arrow in time and so led the poor sheep either into the traps or into the areas where I quarantined their enemies! Sometimes the sheep come out so fast that you need the reflexes of a Ninja Grand Master to stop them from running into their enemies before you can place the first arrow to divert them or to move their enemies out of the way but, unlike some games, you can replay the levels as many times as you want if you fail the first time. If you get really stuck you can spend some of your hard-earned coins to let the game play itself out for that level. I did it a couple of times and got an "Oh! So THAT'S how it's done!" feeling at the end.

The bonus games between rounds are very funny - without wishing to give anything away, watch out especially for the sheep sitting on the roof in the background! When you start to earn enough money to begin upgrading the farm, you realise that this is NOT your average farm - which is another humorous touch, as are some of the enemies your sheep encounter!

The Apiary Quest game is just your average everyday Match 3 game where you’re tasked to match flowers (and other random things) in a straight line to gather enough honey in order to advance to the next level.

And if you’re confused about the term “Apiary”, then here’s some Wikipedia information to help you out. Not that it will help you playing the game though.

There’s Gotta Be Something New Right?

I’m gonna say that you’re both right and wrong at the same time. Why?

Well, in terms of the game area layout, you got it right because instead of the usual square enclosures, the Apiary Quest game features hexagonal enclosures which is probably a mimic of the shape of an actual beehive. Now, the advantage of having a hexagonal shape is that you have 6 ways to swap your tiles instead of the 4 ways as you are accustomed to on a traditional Match 3.

But that does not hide the fact that this is just another Match 3. And what I can definitely say about this is that it is one hell of a boring game also.

Now Why Would I Say That?

Look, I’ll give 3 reasons that can back up my claim.

First, there’s not even a tad hint of originality on the game as far as gameplay is concerned. As I had said before, it’s just traditional Match 3. It’s even frustrating that the game lacks some firepower to attract even a spark of interest. Not to mention that playing the game is entirely dependent on luck. In fact, I once ran out of time on a particular stage but was also able to finish the same stage within 30 seconds after I retried. Well, I can’t fully blame the Apiary Quest game because luck is somewhat essential on most Match 3 games, right?

Make some room on your calendar because a little 'ol game you haven't heard of--Abundante!-- is waiting to be downloaded, and believe me, you won't be able to stop once you begin.

Before we get to the story, the premise behind this arcade puzzler is simple enough--well, to start, anyway.

Gamers are presented with a grid of randomly placed gems insides of bricks, such as red rubies, green emeralds, white diamonds and blue sapphires. Using your mouse, you must roll your mining cart at the bottom of the screen left or right and click to grab the bottom gem(s) of the same color. Then, you must roll the cart and click again to shoot it back up towards the grid; the idea is to create at least four adjoining gems of the same color, which breaks the bricks and releases the gems so that you can catch them as they cascade down to the bottom of the screen. Don't take your time breaking these bricks, as the rows slowly begin to descend; if they touch the bottom, it's game over.

Sounds like fun--and you'll no doubt succumb to the "just one more level" phenomenon found in well-made casual games--but this, my friend, is just the beginning.

Before long, gamers will begin to see a twist in the game-play as you must also create specific patterns of these gems in order to receive bonus points (i.e., more falling gems) at the end of the level--which is a blast to catch and rack up your score. Players will see what shapes to make out of the gems on the right-side of the screen such as a 2x2 (box) shape, four in a row horizontally, a letter "L," and so on. This adds another layer of strategy to the game-play.

"Abundante! - REJOICE! I HAVE FINISHED THIS GAME 4 TIMES. FOR ME IT'S THE BEST GAME OF THE WORLD. THE MUSIC IS VERY NICE AND STAYS IN YOUR HEAD. THE GAMEPLAY IS STRONG AND THE STORY REALLY INTERESTING. I KNOW THAT IT'S VERY SOON, BUT I AM WAITING FOR ABUNDANTE! TWO. HAVE A NICE DAY ;)"- Abundante! Bunny

"Review of Abundante - I think this is a game for those who want a straightforward and entertaining action puzzle. The theme is nice and I love all the special effects. Bascially you need to form groups of at least four bricks to break them. After that the bricks release gems which you can collect. Abundante! also has a twist called "shapes": for example you can arrange bricks to a 2x2 formation and get a nice boost to level progress and lot of points if that formation is displayed in the shapes panel. Abimdamte! reminds me of Astro Pop, but it is more fun and easier to play. I would encourage everyone to try this, for me it is good fun and there are several hours of it." - Mix 'n Match

Serving a tasty mix of time management and hidden-object discovery, Go-Go Gourmet brings its own dash of cookery craziness to the table for those hungering for some pulse-pounding, restauranteuring action. What's its recipe for success? Don your apron, grab your Ginsu Knives and follow along!

As the story unfolds, Gramps Henry is searching for of the world's hottest chili recipe, leaving you, his niece Ginger, with a dilapidated eatery to renovate and a blank cookbook to fill. Accomplishing this feat requires both cash and experience, acquired under the tutelage of six local culinary kingfish. Pay your dues as you conjure over 120 gastronomic pleasures, while completing more than two-dozen repairs and upgrades to your bistro, and you'll soon be a Master Chef.

Go-Go Gourmet combines the best elements of time management diversions like the Diner Dash and Cake Mania series with those of hidden object favorites exemplified by the Mystery Case Files games into a unique restaurant simulation. However, becoming a Master Chef is no simple matter. First, you have limited time to serve your patrons. Customers pop in one at a time to place their food orders, but quickly backlog waiting while you to whip together their meals. Up to three clients will stand in line, but dally in delivering your diligently prepared delicacies and they'll leave in a huff along with their cash and your high scores.

Next, each recipe calls for specific ingredients, and this is where the seek-and-find element comes into play. Foods and condiments such as ground beef, bacon, fish, eggs, milk, onions, bread, cheese, apples, lettuce, cucumbers, ketchup, mayonnaise and more are strewn around each kitchen, a few partly hidden behind another object or "disguised" in some fashion. And, they're almost never in the exact same location from level to level.

Plus, it doesn't take long before the sheer number of ingredients makes locating what you need a problem. Not sure of an item's identity? Leave your pointer over it momentarily and a description will appear. However, this wastes valuable time. If you're really stumped, you can employ Go-Go Gourmet's hint mechanism to locate the next ingredient, but it needs to replenish itself before being used again. Add the complexity of new recipes and ingredients constantly being added, and the action becomes frantic and confusing quickly...

Chefs, start your engines! Go Go Gourmet takes you on a culinary trip. Begin as a junior cook and saute your way up to master chef. Once I get the hang of game player, I instantly gain a hearty for the game. Folks, this does not resemble any food game you’ve played. Sure, it has a little Cooking Mama in it, but Go Go Gourmet goes goes beyond the goals of cooking up goodies and fast.

Grandpa Henry hands over his restaurant to Ginger to do with as she pleases. The catch: Grandpa’s restaurant needs a lot of work. Well, hey, it doesn’t cost us anything to get a restaurant. So Ginger (us players) goes to work for Chuck Bergerman (har har, nice pun, designers) to earn money to revamp Grandpa’s restaurant as well as learn her way around the kitchen.

Here, we don’t just run around the kitchen and fulfill customer orders. A level starts with a customer’s face popping up along with a cartoon bubble that lists all the steps and ingredients in the requested dish. A step typically consists of the ingredients to find and ends with cooking the collected ingredients or delivering the dish to the customer.

In every level, the ingredients move around the kitchen. As we work in new restaurants, the kitchen set up also changes. The stove might be on the right in one restaurant and on the left in another. So don’t get too comfy. Impossible to get bored!

You get a feel for where some ingredients will appear, so it’s not as difficult as it sounds. As you cook more recipes, you earn new recipes and ingredients. The kitchen looks barren early in the game and overflows with ingredients later on.

Before you tackle the second or third step with your first customer, customer #2 pops in. Now we must manage two orders at the same time. Be ready to manage up to four customer orders. Sounds frantic, but it’s so much fun.

Don’t expect fake recipes here. The recipes for the dishes look authentic and come to life with a photo as you deliver them to customers. As we gain experience, we move to another restaurant serving different type of food. Ginger learns Pan-Asian, vegetarian, Parisian, seafood, English cooking...

Experience a food obsession unlike any other as Oberon Games launches its latest mass-market casual game, Go-Go Gourmet. Now available for download for the PC, Go-Go Gourmet is an innovative blend of two distinctly different game play styles that combines the classic fun of seek-and-find with the pulse-pounding excitement of time management.

“Oberon Games continues to deliver fresh new content to casual game players worldwide,” said Don Ryan, Oberon Media’s senior vice president of Publishing. “With Go-Go Gourmet’s fun yet addicting game play, players will enjoy a unique and entertaining experience like never before.”

Grandpa Henry is off to find the world’s hottest chili recipe and has left his ramshackle bistro to his niece, Ginger. Armed with an empty recipe book and a desire to learn, Ginger sets out to study under some of the craziest culinary kingpins in town as she tries to earn the title of Master Chef and open her own restaurant...

Go-Go Gourmet: Oberon Games brings section slights the law the novel simulation game. Deeply loves the good food the leading lady has received the letter paper and the recipes which grandfather mails, helps Ginger to carry on the study and the practice in the different dining room, the accumulation fund repairs and inherits Grandpa Henry the old dining room.

The whole game picture displays fine and the exquisite effect, the image substantial color strong, the different national dining room shop has the characteristic decoration, all kinds of good food graph portray is real, perhaps may make you greatly to increase during the game appetite oh.

Joyful and sprightly background music melody, coordinates the vivid sound effect to be partial, can cause to play the family to obtain in the intense game process relaxes.

The Go-Go Gourmet increased has looked for food according to the word the link, although all was some simple and the fixed glossary, but sought or some difficulties facing the multitudinous material, played the family to be allowed to examine in Cook Book, after the familiar cooked food manufacture order and the use material gradually enhanced the manufacture speed...

Ghost in the Sheet is not all that scary, in fact it's a light hearted look at the other side where you will learn how to use your paranormal powers to shift objects and perhaps scare the daylights out of a few living people.

If you have ever wondered if there is life after death, perhaps Ghost in the Sheet will answer your question. With puzzles to solve, new supernatural powers to learn and adventures that are "out of this world", this is a game that will be very popular...

When I was a little kid, I had some strange ideas. Much to my delight, I've recently discovered that at least one of them wasn't too misguided after all. Ghosts -- some of them, anyway -- actually do go around dressed in sheets.

Welcome to Ghost in the Sheet (GitS), an unconventional ghost story gift-wrapped in a deliciously wicked little game. It was put together in less than a year by just two people: Jan Kavan (Dark Fall 2 , Barrow Hill) and Lukas Medek, collectively known as Cardboard Box Entertainment (CBE).

I think they've done an amazing job. Among other things, they've actually managed to make death funny.

Interestingly, the game was originally shorter (a scant seven screens, in fact), there were no voiceovers, and it was to have been offered as downloadable freeware/shareware. But publishers started expressing interest, the game grew to 65 backgrounds, 20 cutscenes and 14,000 words; voice talent was added, and bam -- Bob's your uncle.

If GitS is any indication, you can toss out your ideas concerning a pleasant after-death existence. Playing as the title character ("Ghost"), we depart this mortal coil after having been run down by a truck ("My whole life appeared as a shortcut in my head..."). We soon discover that we must stay wrapped in a dirty sheet to keep our astral remains from flying apart.

Adding insult to mortal injury, we must also work for a nasty, self-proclaimed Boss who runs a "ghostcatching organization" -- sort of a reverse-ghostbusters. He demands that we call him "Sir," threatens to take away our sheet if we don't carry out his orders, and is aided in his nefariousness by an assistant quite fittingly named Oozy. So much for the Great Beyond, eh?

Our first assignment is to solve a mystery in an abandoned, curiously bucket-filled factory called Sector Omega. It seems that people have died here but their souls haven't made it "through the tunnel" where they can be drafted into the Boss's service, much as we were. It's up to us to discover what's causing the backup.

During this process, we meet and interact with other dead (or worse than dead) folks who have taken various forms, all of whom represent people who worked at the factory. One of them isn't even aware of being dead. And oddly, no one seems to know what was being made at Sector Omega .

We also encounter a live (but not for long) human and an honest-to-goodness monster. How could we have been so lucky to land here instead of Paradise?

Seeing as how Ghost has no corporeal self -- and thus, neither do we -- we must acquire various paranormal skills in order to interact with the game's environment. The Boss generously supplies us with telekinesis, with the stern caveat that we have to figure out how to use it ("This isn't a kindergarten!").

We learn other skills along the way, including the ability to command light and wind, make scary sounds, and impart electric shocks (my favorite). I found it refreshing and quite unique to encounter skill-building, traditionally a feature of RPGs, in an adventure game.

I adore black humor, and GitS has plenty of it. For instance, when Ghost sees a No Smoking sign, he voices the opinion that a Stop Bleeding sign would have been more appropriate. And after the game's hungry monster agrees not to eat us and Ghost expresses relief, the monster tells us he was only joking.

Subtle references to CBE as well as other assorted witticisms are scattered throughout the game. GitS never takes itself too seriously, and while it can be unsettling in spots, it definitely has more laughs than scares.

The game is presented in 1st-person slide-show format. It also offers two features that get my endorsement every time: unlimited save slots (or at least more than I was able to use), and non-linear gameplay.

Although the point-and-click interface is simple enough, a short tutorial is presented at the beginning of the game to insure that everyone understands what to do. I did find some aspects of the navigation initially confusing, however.

After moving to a new location, there were times my POV would show the spot I'd moved to as seen from afar (for instance, from across a room) rather than present a display of my new surroundings in 1st-person POV. And often, after moving forward through a door, I'd end up facing where I'd been rather than where I was going, as if I'd turned around...

While being dead doesn't sound like much fun, being a ghost has a lot of possibilities. Unless, of course, you're forced to wear a sheet to hold together the ghostly bits of yourself and facing an afterlife of civil service. In the aptly named Ghost in the Sheet, you play as just such a character. After being run over by a car, there is no light to be seen that will send you into the embrace of the eternal happiness of heaven. Instead, you seem to have gotten stuck in a bed sheet and working for a grumpy boss who wants you to investigate some strange occurrences at a factory called Sector Omega. A life of ghostly P.I. work appears to be your destiny.

The factory you are sent to snoop around seems to be abandoned. It also appears to be in terrible shape. Whether this is from neglect or purposeful destruction is not instantly apparent. You will need to do some exploring to get more information. Though starting from such a simple premise, the story starts to get a little confusing and murky with unanswered questions as it unfolds.

Like many adventures, particularly other first-person slideshow-style games such as this one, there is a fair amount of reading, starting with a factory worker’s journal. This account provides the player with most of the backstory for the game. However, the factory is also littered with papers, many of which will need to be examined in order to glean clues as to what happened to the factory and the people who worked there.

Unfortunately, this reading doesn’t really create the atmosphere of mystery and interest it should, because the story just isn’t that engrossing, and it doesn't answer all the questions it raises. Even by the end of the game there are huge holes in some of the logic. Like why Ghost in the Sheet, as he is referred to in the game, is sent to figure out what is happening at Sector Omega by his Afterlife Boss, though it seems to be the opposite of what he actually wants. Huh? The story is not helped by the dialogue, which is not good. It is full of cliches and jokes – wink, wink – that fall flat. And during conversations, the dialogue trees do not automatically update. So exhausted lines of questioning don’t disappear from the screen or indicate that they've been explored, causing confusion at points about what has or has not been discussed. This is really strange; I am totally confused by this design choice.

To plot a route through the game, you will use a node-based, point-and-click navigation system. The mouse will change shape to indicate where you can move and what objects you can inspect closer or use. Many times clicking on an object invokes Ghost in the Sheet to provide you with some information about it. Sometimes this information is helpful, revealing numbers or information about events in the factory; other times, not so much. For some reason, the factory seems to be full of empty buckets, all of which seem to be active hotspots, but often with little or no meaningful information attached to them. If there is a reason why they are scattered all over the place, it is never explained to the player...