You are Hoshiko and you have been assigned to save your grandfather’s temple. You need to find the medallions of virtue to save the temple. Your only have so much time to do it because your grandfather is fading away, fast. Solve the match three puzzles in ZenGems and find the medallions of virtue before time runs out.

ZenGems is a match three puzzle game. The matches are made by shooting a colored ball towards other balls to achieve three of the same color. The balls disappear when you have matched three or more of the same color. Of course, the levels are not that easy. There are many obstacles in the way. Not only that, some levels require you to get all of the gems before the level ends instead of just matching the colors.

You will need to almost finish the first series in the arcade mode before the adventure mode will open. The arcade mode is just different boards. In the beginning, the different boards introduce you to the different level designs, power ups and types of balls that are available during game play.

ZenGems contains some tricky levels. Some levels contain rocks that can only be blown up by fireballs. Others contain rocks with a colored ball in the middle and the rock can be broken by matching three of the same color as the rock. The levels will contain different objectives as well. Some will have you break all of the gems in the level. Other levels have you obtain all of the energy balls in the level. There is enough variation to keep your attention. As you are trying to complete the objective of the level, every so often more ball are pushed in from the bottom of the screen. You need to complete your objective before any row reaches the top of the screen. If you don’t, you lose the level.

ZenGems does not contain power ups per se. There are different types of balls that you can throw but they just show up. You don’t attain the special balls by doing great things. Some of the different balls are needed to complete a level. There are pusher balls. The pusher balls push another ball or gem out of the way. The pusher balls are good to break gems with or get at hard to reach balls. There are also fireballs that blast through hard rocks.

There are energy balls too, but these are spread throughout the board. When you match three around the energy ball you obtain the ball. The energy balls allow you to clear all balls of that color from the row you shoot it in. There are also color bursts that work like the energy balls. You match three around the color burst and you get the color burst. The color burst allows you to change colors of the balls. You change it to the color the burst is.

The graphics in the game are phenomenal. The background on the boards are very well done. They are clean, crisp graphics that are really nice to look at. The backgrounds to the storyline are beautiful as well. Any time there is a graphic in the game it just looks great. The graphics do portray a peaceful feeling.

I found ZenGems interesting and fun to play. This is not just another match three game. ZenGems is a bit different in the way they have you match three. Not to mention the puzzles in the levels can get challenging.