Slice HD is one an iPad game that you won’t want to touch. There are a few different types of blades arranged around the screen and the player has to carefully move the blades away from a button that is hiding under the blades. The button will open up and turn to orange when all of the blades have been moved out of the way. The catch to the game, the blades will cut your fingers if you touch the sharp edge and blood will squirt onto the screen.

Slice HD combines a puzzle game with a twister type game for your fingers. There are different levels that require you to move multiple blades at once, which requires the player to place their fingers on multiple blades at a time and maneuver them in a way that does not cut them. It gets tricky to move the blade and not get cut at times. There are levels that will have blades that pop up from no where too.

On of the things I don’t particularly care for is, if you get cut you lose the level, but you also go back a level. Players find themselves playing the level before the level they are stuck on. It is possible to go all the way back to the beginning too. I think if you made it to a level and can’t pass that level you should be able to stay on the level until you figure out how to pass the level.

Over all, Slice HD is a fun and entertaining game. The levels increase in difficulty as you go on and it gets harder and harder to maneuver your hands to move the blades and not get cut. If players are quick, they will be able to figure out the puzzles and then get their hands to do what they need. If you are looking for a different type of puzzle game and don’t mind blood, check out Slide HD in the Apple App Store.

Float is an arcade style game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The goal of the game is to keep the balloons in the air until time runs out. If the balloons stay in the air, the play progresses to the next level of the game. If a balloon hits the spikes at the bottom of the screen a life is lost. The player has three lives.

The balloons can be hit from the top or the bottom. Hitting a balloon from the bottom causes the balloon to rise and hitting the balloon on the top causes the balloon to float down. The player has to use these techniques to keep the balloons afloat for the allotted time. Each level has a different time to keep the balloons afloat.

Players accrue points as the balloons float. There is a line placed at a certain point on the screen. If the balloons are allowed to float down to the line and then hit back up, the player scores more points. Of course, the line is usually close to the spikes, which makes the game more challenging.

Over all Float an entertaining game. If you like arcade style games that you can play in bite size chunks, check out Float in the Apple App Store.

Popcap’s most successful game, Plants Vs. Zombies, has now arrived on the Nintendo DS, after having been released on PC, iOS, Xbox Live Arcade, and Mac OS. How does it compare with the previous editions? Well in some ways, not so well in others.

For those few of you who still don’t know what Plants Vs. Zombies is, it’s a modified tower defense game in which you thwart a zombie invasion on your suburban lawn with plants, which can be “bought” with sunshine. Some plants like sunflowers generate sunshine, while others fire projectiles that damage zombies. Other plants devour, blow up, and freeze zombies, while others can cause them to attack other zombies. The zombies come in just as many varied forms. Some have road cones on their heads to protect them, while others are tied to balloons to float over the plants. Some are armed with pick axes to burrow under the ground, while others ride zombie dolphins. The goal is to prevent them from entering your house and eating your brain. Successful protection results in cash being sent your way.

During all this, Crazy Dave – who is craaaAAAAaaazy - will sell you plant and tool upgrades, while you can send your other plants to Zen gardens to earn even more money to buy more stuff. Aside from the main game, there are tons of minigames that often riff off of other Popcap games, like “Beghouled” which is Plants Vs. Zombies, Bejeweled-style.

So how well is the game implemented on the Nintendo DS?

Well, it seems clear that Popcap was presented with a choice on how to stuff the game onto a DS cart – content or graphic fidelity – and they wisely went with content. All of the stuff you have with the with the PC Game of the Year edition, including the Zombatar feature in which you can create your own customized Zombie, is there. Not only are all of the minigames present, but Popcap actually managed to fit in four new exclusive DS minigames. Air Raid is a zombie-themed side scrolling shooter. Home Run Derby has the player having to hit home runs to earn sun to fend of zombies. Heat Wave actually utilizes the DS microphone, in which you have to coax your tired plants into cheering up using the mic. Bomb All Together gives the player a limited amount of explosive plants to deal with zombies.

As for gameplay, Plants Vs. Zombies is the rare DS game that uses only the touch screen and stylus. All aspects of the game are controlled as such. One of the unexpected delights is that it also features ad hoc multiplayer for some good old versus head-to-head action, which one player controlling the plants and the others the zombies.

The graphics, however, do suffer. The downgrade is comparable to seeing the Atari 2600 try to handle an NES game. The characters seem to have four frames of animation, while being highly pixellated. However, the gameplay and massive number of minigames as well as multiplayer makes it an easy price to pay. There’s too much game here not to be pleased with the final result, and Plants Vs. Zombies is the perfect DS game for having some quick gameplay sessions.

Plants Vs. Zombies is a welcome addition to the Nintendo DS library, and anyone who hasn’t tried this addictive gem yet – or have and want it on the go as well, should pick this game up.

Crazy Electric is a fast paced puzzle game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The goal of the game is to get the electricity to the light bulb. The player completes the level and moves onto the next level if they are able to light the bulb. There are 60 different puzzles to challenge players.

Lighting a light bulb may sound like a simple task, but of course it is not that easy. The beginning levels start out simple enough and serve as a tutorial. Each new ability is explained to the user so they know what to expect. Players have to use the scrolling pipes to get the electricity to light the light bulb. The pipes scroll onto the screen and must be used before they all stack up. If the pipes stack up, the game is over and the level must be played again.

Once you get use to the pipes and how to place them, the game adds more challenge with wood obstacles and bombs. The bombs can be used to clear pipes that were mistakenly placed down. Until the bombs, there is no way to clear the pipes that were mistakenly placed down. Some of the levels require the player to light the bulb, but not blow up a bomb that will blow up the light and cause the level to be lost.

The game is played by touching the pipes that are scrolling at the bottom of the scree and placing them where the player wants them. The touch based controls work well and all of the touches were recognized by the game.

Over all, Crazy Electric is a fun and challenging game. Any puzzle fan will enjoy this game. Crazy Electric takes the puzzle game play and adds urgency to it. Players have to use the pieces before they stack up and be able to put the pieces where they will work best. If like puzzle games, check out Crazy Electric in the Apple App Store.

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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