It's not because I just returned from visiting Pixar Animation Studios that I find similarities in the story between the animated flick, Ratatouille, and Alawar's new hidden object game, Mystery Cookbook. After all, both follow a mouse/rat who wants to be a skilled chef. Um, sound familiar? While we won't dock points for story unoriginality, we must in the gameplay department, and for other issues, which we'll soon get to.

As a result, Mystery Cookbook is a fun but flawed game that might hold your interest for a while but don't expect much from this casual download.

Boot up this attractive hidden object game and you'll meet Mousy, a rodent who wants to master the fine art of professional cooking. To help him achieve this lofty goal, you'll meet many bizarre animal characters, visit nearly a dozen locations and search for hundreds of well-hidden items in order to find pages of a secret cookbook. If you don't like the humorous dialogue between Mousy and a cat, dog, fish, bird, hamster and so on, you can just click to fast-forward to the game-play.

If you're familiar with hidden object games, you'll have no trouble playing Mystery Cookbook: players are presented with a busy scene, such as a restaurant kitchen, and a number of items to find, such as a fork, wine glass, basket, apple or flowers. Sometimes you'll see the items listed as words, like "bread," while other levels will show you a silhouette of an item to find, such as an outline of a sugar bowl, and you'll need to look for it on the screen. You must find all the items within the allotted time or else you need to replay the level. Click on the wrong item a few times and 20 seconds will be removed from the clock as a penalty...

The first thing that is very attractive in the game is its graphics. It’s fun to get into the world of cartoon-styled animals that have some problems to solve. According to the story, you are to help Mousy become a skilled chef. The story reminds the Ratatouille cartoon, but it’s not the same anyway.

So you go to different locations in search of the pages of a secret cookbook. You’ll also meet cute funny animal characters on your way. They are going to help Mousy, but if you are not interested in their dialogues you can always skip them.

Get ready to have to find a lot of items in the hidden object levels. Some of them will be listed as words, some as silhouettes. There are hints to help you if you are stuck. You click on a cheese platter and you can replenish it by finding pieces of cheese on the screens...

In the Mystery Cookbook game from Shape Games, you play as a mouse (named Mousy) on a quest to become a great chef, perhaps amongst domesticated animal-kind. But in order for him to do just that, he must search for the missing pages of a certain cookbook first. The Mystery Cookbook left by a famous all-around chef, but now separated into several ways by his students. And so, armed with only his determination and vitamin-enriched eyes, he travels all across town to rebuild the lost cookbook and mark his place in culinary history forever.

Anyway, being a Hidden Object game, your main objective in Mystery Cookbook is to find all the objects given to you as a list or in the form of a white silhouette. There are also scenes where you’re to spot the difference between two panels too, but aside from these features and an occasional puzzle mini-game, there’s really nothing, in terms of game play, that sets Mystery Cookbook apart from other Hidden Object games. You just have to follow the linear flow of the game, try to finish a level within the time limit, and gather enough cheese to use for hints.

Not saying it’s all bad though, because the Mystery Cookbook game has its many good points too…

Mystery Cookbook is a delightful hidden object game that actually had me longing for more when the trial ended. First off, the storyline is simply adorable, as you play a "mousey" who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef. You must complete the quests of numerous animal friends in places ranging from kitchens to bakeries to dumpsters by locating missing items and torn cookbook pages...

Frequently, descriptions accompanying new games include a good dose of hyperbole, exaggerated promises and more. Phrases like "stunning artwork, enveloping music and prose worthy of the masters" are spun by marketing mavens you'd swear have never even seen the title they're hawking. On occasion, however, the "overstated" is actually true.

That's the case with Dream Chronicles from KatGames and PlayFirst. In this instance, "gorgeous Art Nouveau artwork, mesmerizing music and a gripping storyline" accurately illustrate the experience that lies ahead.

So, what is Dream Chronicles? It's best described as a casual cousin to epic, hard-core adventures like Myst and Uru. A mix of fantasy and reality, its hypnotic dreamland engages you in a larger-than-life quest, a mystery that needs to be solved one puzzle at a time as the story unfolds around you.

Lilith, Fairy Queen of Dreams, has imprisoned the hamlet of Wish under a slumber spell affecting everyone but you, a mortal named Faye. Your task is to locate Fidget, your missing husband, banish the enchantment cast by Lilith and wake your daughter, Lyra, reuniting your family in the process. But, all you have to start with is a diary left by Fidget detailing his secret past and the path to be followed. Why did Lilith cast this spell? What happened to Fidget? What's transpired in years past? These are some of the questions you need to unravel.

In traditional adventure form, your quest in Dream Chronicles is accomplished location by location. Each scene, 32 in all, incorporates one or more puzzles to be solved, with thorough investigation crucial to advancing. Some objects are quite easy to spot while others are more subtle and require greater scrutiny (important objects "glint" after a while to help in locating them). Doors, drawers, buttons, switches, wall hangings, toys, books, keys, crystals and other items of various shapes and sizes all come into play.

Interaction is simple. Clicking items place them in your inventory at the bottom of the screen. Once there, you can use them on other objects and combine them to solve the various conundrums encountered. However, unlike most hard-core adventures, you never lug around any unnecessary inventory items here. All objects needed for a puzzle's solution are found and used in the same scene. Solve the poser at hand and you unlock the "door" to the next location.

Dream Chronicles Game is a mixture of adventure, find and seek and puzzle games. While it appears to be a chick game, I am betting that guys will be playing it on the sly because it is at the cutting edge of arcade games. This will probably be a classic! Kids and adults alike will be able to play, so try this one at home, folks.

The line between reality and fantasy fades in the Dream Chronicles!

Surreal puzzles and intricate clues come alive right in front of you the Dream Chronicles!

In Dream Chronicles you wake to find your husband missing and your daughter and the entire town under a sleeping spell. Your surroundings seem strangely surreal and otherworldly and there are puzzles and clues scattered throughout town like breadcrumbs.

Dream Chronicles lets you explore 18 Environments!

Dream Chronicles is a sensual delight, an intellectual challenge, and a very engaging twist on adventure, seek-and-find and puzzle games. It's been compared to Myst and Uru, and whilst it's certainly not as demanding as those mainstream titles, I found Dream Chronicles even more enjoyable.

You play Faye, who has a dream in which Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams casts a sleep spell over the kingdom. When you awaken, you find that your husband has been kidnapped by Lilith and your child is overcome by the sleep spell. You must find your way to Lilith's domain and free your husband to defeat Lilith and lift the spell. To do this, you must solve puzzles that Lilith has left in your way to prevent you from following her. In addition, you can increase your score by collecting Dream Jewels, which are subtly strewn through each scene.

The whole game covers a wide range of game types, including adventure/RPG, jigsaw, seek-and-find, and a final hurdle that looks alarmingly like the graduate aptitude tests I've been doing recently. You are given hints as to how to proceed, and some brief instruction, but you need to work out what is actually required yourself. (I'm not telling—that would ruin it!) There are walkthroughs available on the web, but they are only useful for finding out what has to be done—the locations of the things you have to find change in each game.

Dream Chronicles does what a casual game of its nature is supposed to do: provide a few hours of entertainment as it transports you into a magical world of puzzles. Set in a fairy-tale environment, the story unfolds chapter by chapter, but before you know it, it's already over.

You take on the role of Faye, a young woman who, at the beginning of the game, is dreaming. But when she wakes up from her peculiar dream, her husband, Fidget, is gone. Her daughter, Lyra, is in a deep enchanted slumber, and it's up to you to follow Fidget's clues to break the spell and to save your husband. The story unravels as you continue on to each level. You'll learn a lot more about your in-laws than you would care to ever know.

Similar to many adventures that have come before, all you need is a mouse to point and click. Clicking on items that you can't pick up will give you a brief description of what it is. Items that can be used will go into your inventory at the bottom of your screen. To use the items, all you need to do is click on it and then click on what you want it to interact with. The game is very simple and intuitive, so there is no need for a tutorial.

Gems are scattered throughout the game for you to collect. This adds to your score at the end. As a registered user, you can go online and compare your score to other players. It took me roughly two hours to complete the game, which seemed incredibly short. There were only a couple of puzzles on which I was stumped, but a majority of them can be easily solved through trial and error and a lot of random clicking.

Ready for a game of mystery and intrigue? PlayFirst’s new puzzler, Dream Chronicles will certainly fit the bill.

Dream Chronicles is a mystery game in which you play a woman named Faye who wakes up from a strange dream only to find that her husband, Fidget, has been taken captive by the evil Fairy Queen of Dreams, Lilith. If this premise vaguely reminds you of the classic mystery game, Myst, it’s not accidental. The main difference is that Dream Chronicles is quite a bit easier than its older cousin. In my opinion, this is a good thing, because, sadly, I never made it though Myst successfully.

Dream Chronicles guides you through a series of puzzles that take you all over a large house full of nooks, crannies, treasures and keepsakes. Lilith, who wants to steal your husband away for herself, has mixed everything up. With the guidance of Fidget’s diary, you have to put everything back in its proper place in order to open many magic doors. Finally, after navigating your way through a maze of mysteries, you end up...

Well, I won’t say more. It wouldn’t be much of a mystery if I revealed all the game’s secrets beforehand, would it?

Many of Dream Chronicles’ puzzles are matching games where you have to assemble a set of pieces from varies pieces of junk in a room and then effect repairs on something. For example, one puzzle requires that you find nuts, wheels, washers, and tools in order to repair a broken wagon.

In this hectic world we live in, many times work and appointments must come before the fun and joys in our lives, including that of getting to play videogames whenever we want. Gone are the days when we could fire up a game of our choice and spend hours toiling away – now we seem to game in stolen moments here and there. With that in mind, perhaps it is no wonder that casual games have become such a popular gaming choice (especially with women who make up the vast majority of casual game players), as casual games allow us to either jump in and get those quick fixes of gaming bliss or either play them for as long as we want when we do have the time. In honor of the casual game, we'll be bringing you a new Casual Game of the Week every Monday to help you find that fix you might be needing in your life, and this week we have: Dream Chronicles.

Though the game doesn't come out till June 12, 2007, we were lucky enough to be able to get an early copy of Dream Chronicles to present to you this early review. In Dream Chronicles, you play as a young woman named Faye, who wakes up one day to find that the Fairy Queen of Dreams – Lilith – has cast a sleeping spell over the kingdom. You wakeup only to find your husband Fidget missing, and your child under the deep sleep spell. Will you be able to get to the root of the matter, break the spell, and find your husband?

Dream Chronicles plays like Myst and a hide and seek game merged into one. It plays like Myst in regards to the static screens and puzzles you'll have to solve to advance through the game, and it plays like a hide and seek game because you have to scour the level to find all the missing objects that you need for the puzzles. The game is very linear, as you only have one set path to take throughout, so you won't have to worry about finding an item on one static screen, and then have to hold onto it for three or four down the lane. If you find an item that will go in your use try, then be assured it will be used on the same static screen you found it on.

The first big puzzle is always finding all the items you'll need, which is accomplished by searching every little inch of the screen for clickable objects. Thankfully, the process is streamlined, because instead of not knowing what could be an object you'll need and have to endless click to find it, by dragging your pointer over objects you'll see a name pop up for the object, meaning you'll either be using it or get some description about it; if you click it and can and will use it, it will fly down to your use tray. Another nice thing about the game is that if you're stuck and can't see perhaps the last item you need to find, the game will twinkle the object to let you know where to go. Yes, it's a bit of an unfair cheat, but when you've spent a ton of time looking for a tiny little something, you'll be grateful the help is there when the objects do twinkle. Another thing you'll be looking for are little dream jewels, which will net you bonus points when the game is over.

Answer: The Jeopardy theme. Question: What song was running through my head as I tried to write a clever lead for this review? While my intro might remind you of the popular quiz program -- and put a catchy tune in your head -- it doesn't capture its spirit. To do that, I'd need music and visuals from the series, along with the charismatic personalities millions of fans have come to adore. So how does the new Jeopardy game stack up against such demanding criteria? Let's find out.

Unlike the series, in which three contestants face off in a battle of mental brawn, the new game works as both a single-player and a multiplayer offering. After loading up, you're given three options: Play Alone, Group Play and Daily Clue.

In Play Alone, you provide the question to as many clues as you can, opting to skip those you might not know and wagering what you wish on the Daily Doubles. The general structure follows the show, with six categories appearing on the board and five dollar amounts appearing under each category. The answer is shown first along with the option to respond or pass; if you choose to respond, you're given four clues from which to select. Get it right, and you earn the dollar value for that clue; get it wrong, and you lose that amount. (While the multiple choice format takes away from the authenticity of the game, it keeps the rounds moving and makes the offering more accessible to casual users.) As on the show, expect an easy round containing one Daily Double and less prize money first, then a harder round with two Daily Doubles and twice as much prize money and then Final Jeopardy.

In another feature not possible on the show, you can earn up to 36 trophies for special accomplishments, such as earning $100,000 over the course of a single character's "career" or for completing your first game. While I'd rather have Alex Trebek hand me a real check, the achievements are a nice addition.

Group Play can be done against the computer or up to two other human participants. For computer-controlled opponents, you can select from three difficulties ranging from easy to hard. This affects the response time of the A.I. and the number of clues they get right. On easy, several seconds pass after the clue appears before your opponents ring in. On hard, the computer is almost as fast on the button as Ken Jennings...

In terms of graphics, I can really say that JEOPARDY! 2 gets a really high grade even from the avatar design only. The game play is very smooth and simple and I liked how you are given a total of 4 choices for each trivia question. In fact, I was thinking that if I’m not given any choices, I can never even answer a single $200-point question. So I really find the multiple choice feature of this game as godsend and I bet you’ll find it exactly like that too.

What’s odd about this game though is the absence of music. I know that the actual Jeopardy game is just like that, but in my opinion, it just doesn’t cut it when it comes to making PC games. It’s like icing on sponge cake… there’s texture but it really won’t taste good, and I don’t like my cakes without icing… well, do you? Just try the single player mode and you’ll see what I mean.

I really loved the multiplayer option but I really don’t get it why the computer players never miss a single question. The easy ones will sometimes skip a question but whenever he chooses to answer, it will be always right. I’m guessing that the AI is not that good, either that or I’m just pissed off for not being able to answer any of the questions myself...

On paper, Zen Fashion works marvels, combining two favorite passions - inner peace and haute couture - into an intriguing match-three puzzler that sends you trotting about China, Japan, Korea and the bulk of the Asian continent. Unfortunately, a snappy Far Eastern aesthetic and soothing soundtrack, not to mention somewhat novel play conceit (donning new duds to mix and match powers), can't save the title from an inconvenient truth. Specifically, that the melding of these twin concepts suffers due to inconsistent level design, too-leisurely pacing and a handful of issues that'll have even the most patient player ready to kick the creators right in their dharma.

Starting out, you'll take on the role of a young woman hoping to follow in the footsteps of her grandmother, a famed fashion designer. To master the craft, she needs context, and therefore sets out to explore her roots by traveling to the Orient's most fashionable cities. Working your way across an attractive campaign map spanning a dozen destinations such as Singapore and Bangkok, you must progress through 96 levels - 8 per stopover - to ultimately achieve success. And, of course, master the all-too-familiar basics of the mostly innocuous outing, which simply involve dragging your mouse to link horizontal, vertical or diagonal chains of three or more flowers, which disappear from play when grouped.

Incredibly relaxed in nature, stressed out owners will find the setup further benefits from the presence of between-mission "zen breaks" that let you stop and stare at glistening lakes and gorgeous sunsets. The chief problem being that, despite the presence of periodically hard-to-reach pieces or obstacles such as blocks that must be destroyed by eliminating tiles around them, meeting your end goal - removing all colored tiles by making matches atop them before time runs out - is seldom difficult, let alone engaging.

Moments of excitement generally come at the expense of serenity as well. The most frequent example: Times when you're desperately trying to collect a poorly-located tile, but can't because play's mercurial nature (eliminated flowers are automatically filled in with randomized replacements instead of existing tiles filling in from above) inherently works against you...

I really loved the Zen Fashion game’s graphics and relaxing sounds and as a matter of fact, the guys at Boomzap Entertainment themselves are proud about the overall presentation of the game. In fact, there’s this Zen Break feature also wherein you get to take a break from all the hectic action to watch a beautifully rendered wallpaper scene featuring Zen-themed locations in Asia. But what I really liked is how Hana looked good in all those clothes. Well, not really because I’m some perverted guy, but it’s just because I’m into all those fashion stuff myself… HONEST!

Moving on, I also liked the additional features of Zen Fashion like the trophy system and how you can mix and match all the Asian costumes presented in the game. If you’re into fashion (like me, lol), the game will let your creativity soar as you dress Hana with all the combinations of 108 fashion pieces you can collect throughout the whole adventure. It’s quite a wonder too how the different Asian costumes can blend together, showing us how much we are all just intertwined in this crazy world (that’s deep analysis for you)...

Zen Fashion didn't exactly get my attention with its title, but with the magic word, "puzzle". I actually haven't played a casual puzzle game in a while, so I jumped right in.

Zen Fashion could be described as a "match three" puzzle, but the mechanics are actually similar to a connect-the-dots game. You must connect any adjacent flowers of the same kind to clear the tiles, with a minimum of three. The flowers must be touching either horizontally, vertically or diagonally, which makes up for some rather large combos in some cases. You just click the first flower, then drag the mouse over the matching ones to make your combo.

So why the "fashion" in the title? Your protagonist sets off on a trip through Asia, researching traditional outfits and fabrics. The game is separated into 12 areas, each composed of 8 levels, depicting lovely landscapes. When reaching certain levels, you unlock new outfits for your character: a hair style, a top or a bottom piece. Each piece in your wardrobe (with the exception of the starting ones) has one or two Zen Powers that will prove helpful while clearing the puzzles, since they get more and more complicated as you advance through the adventure stages.

The initial tiles you need to clear are golden, which means you only need to match a flower on them once. But there are silver tiles (match two flowers), blockers (match a combo near them to open up the flower) and chained tiles (match two combos near them). Since in the normal adventure mode you are on a timer, every power-up helps. For example, a bomb to replace all the flowers in a particular area, a hand to remove a flower, a lightning bolt that clears a golden flower tile, time bonuses, and a few more. If you find yourself out of moves, the puzzle field will be replaced with a new set of flowers...

One of America's most popular TV game shows goes interactive - again - in Wheel of Fortune 2, the latest computer game that lets players be a virtual contestant and win virtual cash.

This downloadable digital diversion offers a couple of improvements over its predecessor - such as multiple game modes, contestant creation and winnable trophies - but the absence of Vanna and Pat (and any voices at all, for that matter) takes players out of the all-important suspension of disbelief.

As with the television game show it's based upon, Wheel of Fortune 2 lets you partake in a kind of "Hangman"-like word game, where you spin a wheel, land on a dollar value (such as $500) and guess a consonant from the alphabet. If the letter appears in the word(s) you're supposed to guess, which are turned around so you can't see them, you receive that dollar amount for each time. For example, finding three letter Rs in the phrase "BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY" will net you $1500. You can then spin again, buy a vowel or try and guess the phrase. Be forewarned, however, you might land on a "Bankrupt" or "Lose your Turn" spot on the wheel if you choose to spin again. The object of the game is to solve the puzzle before your opponents, and make as much money as you can.

The spinning wheel and letter board look just like the television show, plus the sound effects are pleasantly authentic, as well. But without Vanna -- who did appear in Atari's 2003 version of Wheel of Fortune for the PC -- it's simply not, well, Wheel of Fortune. Note: Vanna and Pat were also not in Sony Online Entertainment's first Wheel of Fortune. At least in this sequel players can now customize the look of their contestant with skin color, facial features, hair styles, and clothing, though it has nothing to do with the game itself...

...After playing Road Trip for quite some time (the game feature where you get to travel on different parts of the USA), I honestly found the Wheel of Fortune 2 game more enjoyable than that of SOE’s JEOPARDY! 2. While the graphics are pretty much the same awesome 3D animation, the game play can get quite addicting and I’m guessing that review holds true only because in my opinion, Wheel of Fortune is really loads better than Jeopardy. And I would like to commend SOE for doing well in capturing the game’s overall enjoyability.

One thing I noticed though is that this game also lacks any music just like JEOPARDY! 2. While the sound effects are really nice, I honestly think that any casual game is incomplete if it doesn’t have any background music. Besides, the game can get real boring too when you’re just waiting for your opponent to finish on his/her turn, and from my experience, music always tends to be the savior when these kinds of things happen...

Wheel of Fortune 2 is a captivating game that brings tons of fun and help to develop logical thinking. It features high quality graphics, diverse sound effects and suitable instrumental music. As for graphics, it is well done and rendered; characters are highly customizable and animated realistically. You surely like their gestures and behavior, when they win or lose. You can customize any character selecting gender, skin color, hair color, hair style, clothing, facial hair and glasses. Another neat feature is the ability to earn trophies while playing - if you play well you can win up to 36 trophies that include "Biggest Bucks" (win $70,000 in a single game), "Bonafide 5 Play" (win the bonus round five times) or "Gameplay Captain" (play for 25 hours), etc. The spinning wheel and letter board look just like the television show, plus the sound effects are pleasantly authentic, as well. Unfortunately, there are no Vanna and Pat, who make the game much original and realistic. All in all, despite of new interesting features, namely the Road Trip mode and trophies, Wheel of Fortune 2 isn't really different than its predecessor...