Bejeweled has been the face of casual games for a long time, much less of the “match 3″ subgenre. It and its imitators can be found everywhere, from Puzzle Quest to World of Warcraft mini-apps.

One of the challenges of a Bejeweled 3 is that there is very little to the formula you can actually add or change. Bejeweled Twist (review) managed to add some life by adding a new selection mechanic, but otherwise, a vanilla sequel would need much more. Bejeweled 3 accomplishes this by adding fresh new game modes.

Of course, it includes the base game, in which you match 3 gems to score. Four gems matched creates an explosive Flame gem. Matching five gems creates the Hypercube which can be matched with another gem to eliminate all gems of that color. Two holdovers from Bejeweled Twist can be found in 3: the Star gem and the Supernova gem. The Star gem is created when a T or L shape is matched with gems – when ignited, the Star gem shoots lasers in four directions and destroys the gems in their paths. The Supernova gem is even more difficult to create: matching six or more gems in a row, which can only be done in a complicated string of explosions. When a Supernova gem explodes, it does the same as the Star gem, only with three rows in four directions. The game ends when there’s no more matches to be made. One of the new twists is that if two Hypercubes are matched, they remove all of the gems from the board, save themselves.

That’s fine, but a slight rehash of Bejeweled 2 isn’t enough to justify a sequel. That’s why Bejeweled 3 comes with a bunch of variations of the concept.

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Glow Interactive has announced the release of Strange Attraction. Strange Attraction is based on USA Network’s Character Arcade. It incorporates elements from casual games and combines them with elements from harder games.

Players take on the role of Gus as they adventure through 24 different levels and three different worlds. Gus finds out that his friends have been captured by a strange machine and he must save them. Players begin their “training”, which teaches them the controls for the game and introduces them to the gravity switch. Players will need to learn how to utilize the gravity switch in order to rotate the levels and solve the puzzles.

“While we developed and designed ‘Strange Attraction,’ the goal was to appeal to the largest percentage of users and appeal to their skill level,” explained Ted Kacandes, co-founder of Glow Interactive. “We’ve found that while many casual players enjoy old school games like Mario Brothers, they often don’t have the time investment to ‘beat’ the game. ‘Strange Attraction’ is a type of game that players can leave and return to whenever they’d like. In these types of games, if your character dies, you are basically respawned and start right where you left off. That also allows players to come and go to the game as they please and as their schedule allows, yet gives them the eventual satisfaction of completing the game in their own time.”

If Strange Attraction sounds like an interesting game, head here to check it out.

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THQ and ngmoco have teamed together to bring Star Wars Imperial Academy to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The game is a multiplayer game that challenges players to beat each other in death matches set in the Star Wars galaxy. The death matches are four players. Players need to prove they have what it takes to be a stormtrooper.

“We’ve been inspired by the  Star Wars films to raise the quality bar to a new high for  Imperial Academy, which we’ve developed as a totally unique experience, combining a first-person shooter with the excitement of  Star Wars for amazing mobile game play,” said Adam Comiskey, Vice President, THQ Wireless.

Star Wars Imperial Academy is not in the App Store yet, but should be coming “soon”.

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TikGames has announced the release of Rocks N’ Rockets for the Nintendo DSi. The game is can be downloaded from the DSiWare shop for 500 DSi points.

Players have to save the earth from meteor attacks. The meteors are heading towards cities. The cities are full of people that need to be protected. Players can protect the people by launching rockets at the meteors. There are three different stages of difficulty to choose from and the game offers 100 different levels.

“TikGames is proud to launch Rocks N Rockets for Nintendo DSiWare. This is the first of several DSiWare titles that we plan to release over the upcoming months.” said Anatoly Tikhman, Founder and CEO of TikGames, LLC.

If you like arcade style shooter games and own a DSi, look for Rocks N’ Rockets in the DSi Shop.

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Namco Networks has announced the release of House of Glass for the iPad. The game challenges players to use shapes to make an object. Players will have to rotate the shapes so they complete the object.

House of Glass takes tangram games to the next level and adds 3D.  Players have to navigate through six different rooms and locate hidden objects. There are 30 different tangram puzzles to solve, which get increasingly harder from one puzzle to the next. Players can can see who had the fastest time with the global leader boards.

If you are looking for a challenging puzzle game, check out House of Glass in the Apple App Store.

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