No, sci-fi brick-basher Hyperballoid 2 isn't named after a rare and debilitating medical condition. But if it were, symptoms would include excessive muscular contractions around the wrist, darting eyes, heightened blood pressure and an irresistible compulsion to remain glued to the PC. A highly engaging and surreally beautiful take on the ancient art of arcade-style, Arkanoid-inspired block smashing, it's the sort of value-minded title that successfully lobbies hard to earn a spot in your personal gaming collection.

Officially subtitled "Time Rider," the outing - and we say this with honest affection - would better have been dubbed "Time Waster." It's so good, in fact, that you'll be compelled to squeeze in additional rounds during coffee breaks at work, just to see if you can bang out a few more levels before turning back to that TPS report. But enough gushing: You've got four uniquely-themed (and named... get a load of the pidgin English behind such featured groupings as Original, Ancient, Planets [sic] and Hitech World) realms to conquer. Quirky nomenclature notwithstanding, you're free to tackle all at your own pace, hopping back and forth between each aesthetically-varied category as the mood strikes.

And believe us... Want to experiment you will, as a relatively basic gameplay formula - move your mouse left/right to make a bottom-mounted paddle swat bouncing balls back into the destructible bricks waiting above - is quickly transcended by the adventure's stunning feature set. Not only will you play on beautiful, individualized backgrounds featuring moving parts, animated blocks that dart in/out and oscillating designs based on Trojan horses, swirling nebulae and the inside of chugging machines. You'll also get to annihilate over 280 kinds of bricks (steel, stone, glass, etc.) using a whopping 45 special bonuses and detailed physics modeling...

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

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...

And the pet games keep coming. Game developers must think those sweet animals will urge casual gamers everywhere to play. The time management game Purrfect Pet Shop combines caring for the cuties in an animal shelter with matching them to the right owners.

Purrfect Pet Shop resembles Paradise Pet Salon in that they involve feeding, providing medical care, and bathing the animals. Each day you take in pets and prepare them for adoption by bathing them, vaccinating them and feeding them. Customers arrive with a certain kind of pet in mind that they want to adopt, and you match the animals to their requests. You must rely on your powers of "dogtecting" to figure out what animal each customer wants. Customers provide one characteristic of the pet they want (such as fur color or size). If that isn't enough, you can click an icon in the customer's thought bubble to reveal another characteristic (customers request up to four traits).

Sometimes it's difficult to tell traits apart. The animal size icon looks like a T (or a flat line for the tiny ones) and the icons for a small and medium animal look too similar. This is also a problem with colors - especially the brown and orange families. Seeing the needs of those animals in the far left display proves tricky as their icons blend with the customer.

Stacks of dollar bills act as customers' tail wagging meter. The stack shrinks when customers wait too long, you make a mistake with their orders, or don't give them a completely happy pet (in other words, one that is still dirty, hungry, or sick). Pets need to be as happy as possible to earn the full tip. Those giving pitiful looks indicate they need care.

Sofia and Peter, the pet caretakers, have a tendency to block the view of some stations so that you can't tell when the animals using the stations finish. Although animals reappearing in their cages is a way to know they're finished with the station, having a blocked view irritates.

Clicking animals, stations, and owners doesn't always take. You think you're putting the cat in the tub when a big "NO" appears over one of the owners indicating you are trying to connect the owner with the cat. Clicking can start to feel like hard work, and between taking care of the animals quickly and meeting customer needs, it gets a little dicey...

According to the story you are one of two siblings (male or female is up to you). You get a call from your Nana. She disparately needs your help at her pet adoption center.

And - guess what? - you are willing to help. Your character shares her love for poor stray animals and would love to work in a place like that.

After a short tutorial by Nana you get it started. What you do is you serve the customers that come to buy a pet for themselves.

Apart from that there's a special pet you take care of in between the levels. After every level you can also go to the shop and buy some upgrades or toys for your pet...

The Purrfect Pet Shop game puts you in the shoes of a teenager (with your gender preference) taking care of a very busy animal adoption center after your tired and sick grandma (I’m not very sure with this) goes on a vacation to relieve her stress. After a hard day’s work, you will also have to take care of the “pet of your dreams” as you gather enough loyalty hearts for your own pet to love you. And of course, any Time Management game won’t be complete without a way for you to upgrade the tools of your trade.

Here’s the thing, the objective of the game is very simple. Just match a prospective owner to his/her ideal (or in this case, purrfect) pet and earn donations in the process. Of course, you have to prepare a pet for adoption too before sending them off, since I don’t think anyone would like bringing home some stinky dog now, would you?

Anyway, that’s how far the main game play goes. But there’s also this little mini game where you’ll have to take care of your own pet, which involves you doing various activities with him/her. Honestly, it’s kinda cute and all, but I find this mini game quite pointless and its objectives very unnecessary. I mean, you don’t have to walk your dog around the park for 5 times, bathe him/her for 3 times afterwards, then inject him/her with some kind of chemical twice all in just 1 day. Got my point here...