Zen Gems
Developer and publisher: Fresh Games

Zen Gems is a tranquil and gorgeous action-puzzler focusing on shoot-and-match gameplay. The anime-themed background story involves Hoshiko seeking the Medallions of Virtue to save his grandfather’s Spirit Temple. You unlock captivating new worlds while discovering magical power-ups such as color bursts, energy balls and pusher balls. You get to choose between adventure mode, where you follow Hoshiko through 13 mystical worlds; arcade mode, where you blast everything above the water line before pieces roll over the top; and survival mode, where you try to clear pieces to play as long as possible. Regardless, you may choose between casual and expert levels of difficulty. Sumptuous graphics and music are evident throughout in this highly polished offering.

DarkSide
Developer and publisher: Pi Eye Games

Two hundred years of peaceful mining of the solar system’s asteroid belt is suddenly interrupted when the Krainian Empire invades the outer territories. You take the controls of the ArkLight X-52 and fight back in this arcade space shooter. Within 3D environments you pilot your way around hundreds of massive asteroids fighting a host of alien foes. You need to watch out for orbiting chunks of rock and blast them into oblivion before they destroy the mining colonies. Challenging boss battles spice up the action. There are three play modes: missions mode, where you battle through 100 levels with varying objectives; arcade mode, where you use your twitch skills to get as far as you can with just three lives; and survival mode, where you get to see how long you can last with just one life against an endless stream of enemies. Ten power-ups are available, including awesome smart bombs. Three levels of difficulty — easy, tricky, and insane — and in-game tips are available. It’s really fun having to avoid being demolished by both space rocks and aliens.

Chocolate Castle
Developer and publisher: Lexaloffle Games

Chocolate Castle is a delectable puzzle game with a simple premise — you need to find a way to eat all of the chocolate in 120 rooms (divided into easy, medium and hard clusters). To accomplish this task, you control four cute little animals, each of which can eat only chocolate that shares its color. To eat chocolate, you drag an animal into it; prior to that, you can drag chocolate to an empty space so that all the chocolate of one color is contiguous. (If you put two pieces of the same color next to each other, they’ll stick together.) Escalating the devilish brain-melting challenges are snakes that get in your way, ice cubes that keep on sliding when you move them, magic blocks that can only be moved once, and Turkish delight that, when eaten, destroys everything in surrounding squares. Once you figure out how to munch through a room, you can record your solution for posterity and go back and play it again later. Sometimes simplicity works better than complexity, and the retro-graphics and light melodies in Chocolate Castle work perfectly. There’s even a built-in puzzle editor to allow you to design and execute your own customized puzzle fantasies.