Beezzle Review

Written by: Dustin Arient Published: April 10, 2006 Slice open a cross section of an actual beehive, and you'll find honey and a swarm of peeved insects. Fortunately, Alawar Entertainment's Beezzle has less sting; it contains happy cartoon bees armed only with a variety of challenging puzzle games. Beezzle follows a familiar format of matching three or more colored objects on a two-dimensional grid. In this case, the grid is made up of hexagons, each one of which is filled with a solid color or a special tile, such as a bomb. You make matches by swapping one tile at a time with any of its neighbors. Construct a row of three or more identical colors, and they vanish and are replaced by new tiles. All three of Beezzle's game modes are based on this concept, but they differ in their goals. Action mode involves making as many matches as possible to create a requisite number of "honey crystals" before time runs out. Fill mode tasks you with making a color match on every hexagon on the board as the clock ticks down. Puzzle mode isn't timed; instead, you have a set number of moves in which to make a series of matches that guide a bee larva to a special cell across the board. Beezzle doesn't reinvent the wheel; rather, it makes astute variations on the match-three theme. It's a polished offering with color-drenched graphics (the weather effects are a nice touch), a simple interface and enough levels to keep puzzle devotees hooked. Scoring (out of five dragon heads): Graphics: Ease of use: Gameplay: Difficulty: Sound effects: Music: Final analysis: Click here to download the free trial version of Beezzle.