Anyone needing a change of pace from the standard casual games and repeated play will find a treasure in Azada. The game mixes a little adventure with a variety of puzzles and a powerful story. A book has trapped Titus into a painting in a room resembling an office. Titus beckons you to search for the book’s missing pages by solving puzzles.

Each chapter contains eight pages, or rather eight puzzles. Upon completing all eight puzzles, you gain another page of Titus’ story. The adventure part appears a couple of times in each chapter. On these pages, the game provides you with an inventory of items to collect to figure out the page’s puzzle. These puzzles resemble a standard adventure game in that you pick up the pieces and study the room to make something happen to reveal another missing page. These puzzles are, by far, my favorite part of Azada.

I’d love to see a game composed entirely of these types of puzzles. Of course, they take more effort since there is no repetition. To give you an idea of how these puzzles work

The games in between the “adventure” puzzles vary. The following lists some of the games:

• Sudoku with shapes instead of numbers.
• Matchstick puzzles where you rearrange matchsticks to add another square or take away a triangle.
• Dot game with a grid of dots and players take turns adding a line to close as many boxes as possible.
• Match three game where you find three connected items to clear the board (unlike most match three games, you cannot move the items).
• Memory game where you find matching pairs.
• Simon-like game where you must copy the sequence (I don’t like these).
• Peg solitaire (Also not a favorite) that is like playing checkers solitaire.
• Sliding puzzle game that isn’t missing a box (thank goodness, I despise these) where you put the pieces in the right place.
• Mastermind with colored ink calls for breaking the code by figuring out what color appears in what order.

The game occasionally rewards players with an orb that you can use to skip a puzzle. I saved these for the puzzles I didn’t like doing. Games that incorporate a variety of puzzles are bound to have a couple that any individual player may not like — an unavoidable problem of such games. If you love a puzzle, you can go back and play that anytime (after you’ve completed it).

The replay value is just moderate because once you solve some of the puzzles, it’s easy to do them again. However, some do change such as the tangram puzzle where you fit all available shapes into an object that looks like a bunny or some other animal or thing. This feature lets you play the puzzles you like without getting stuck doing the ones you don’t like. If you want to progress in the story, you either have to do the puzzle or give up an orb — and these don’t come by often.

Azada provides a delightful change of pace from the average casual game. The story, the puzzles where you find items to make something happen, the sharp-dressed graphics and fitting music turn Azada into an addicting and pleasurable game. I played the game as much as time allowed until I finished — that’s the true test of) a captivating game.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 6700MHz or faster processor
• 128MB RAM

System Requirements: Mac

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• G3 400 MHz or faster
• 128MB RAM