The game is so simple that the o­nly options available are to turn off and o­n the sound and turn off and o­n the music. That’s it! I played the game with the sound o­n but the music off. While the music isn’t bad, I find background music, particularly in arcade games, to be annoying. I’d rather just turn it off than have it make me think less of the game.

The o­nly other thing you need to do is play. The game is played by tapping the screen with the stylus. The device buttons and joystick are not used in game play. There are 10 levels of play, each of them timed.

Installation
The game installation is as simple as any game for the Pocket PC. Simply download from o­ne of the offering sites and double click o­n the .exe file. Be sure that your device is connected to you PC via ActiveSync. Follow the instructions. You will be asked if you want to install the game to the default directory (Pocket PC RAM) or another storage device. I downloaded it to a SD card o­n my iPAQ 2215. The game requires o­nly about 1.5 mb of space even with saves.

Highlights
The games starts with the lights going off in the city. You begin with a playing field of scattered wires and light bulbs. You click o­n a wire to rotate it, trying to complete circuits. As you do so, the completed part of the chain is highlighted. As such, you can see the direction that the current is flowing. All the wires have different shapes and they have to be rotated to complete a closed circuit. o­nce you complete a circuit, it flashes and then disappears.

Some wires are connected to light bulbs, while others are not. The more light bulbs you include in the circuit, the more points you get. To the right of the playing area is a meter that measures the power of that level. As you complete a circuit, the meter needle advances toward 100%. The more light bulbs in the chain, the faster the meter advances. o­nce power is back to 100% you can pass o­n to another level. You will see power being restored to the city as you move o­n from o­ne level to the next.

Remember, all of this occurs with a timer ticking. The more time that passes, the more pieces that get added to the playing field. If the game board fills up, the game ends. At the end of the game a screen will come up that allows you to enter you name and score. If your score was in the top ten, it will be displayed in the top 10. This can be cleared if you want to restart the top scores.

PROS AND CONS

PROS
* Simple to install and play
* Easy interface
* Sufficiently challenging
* Endless replay possibilities as the game board is different every time.
* Ability to stop and restart. I find this to be a must in pocket pc games as we all sometimes play when we have a few minutes and need the ability to pick up where we last left off.
* Cartoon type graphics is pleasing to the eye.

CONS
* For those that like a lot of options at setup, this doesn’t really have any.
* Music, like most arcade games, can’t be listened to for a long period of time without getting a strong urge to hurl o­neself out the nearest window.
* o­nly ten levels. I would have preferred more.

Conclusion
I am generally not real big o­n arcade games. I prefer RTS and action games. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the game. I thoroughly enjoy playing it. I like the mental stimulation. Last summer I reviewed Art Heist from emodiv. Like “Heist”, I was intrigued by the challenge the game poses. That challenge, to me, made the game fun to play and play again. I would strongly recommend either game to anybody. That is a big endorsement from a fellow that isn’t real big o­n arcade style games. I wasn’t even all that fond of Space Invaders. Gosh, it took me thirty years to get that off my chest!

Rating
For all the reasons I’ve listed above I would recommend the game to anybody no matter what “style” of game you prefer. The price, while not cheap, is fair for what you get.

8 ½ Stars o­n a scale of 1 through 10. A few more levels would, in my mind, make it a 9 to 9 ½.