Mechanic Master (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Windows, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo 64, Mac)

When most people think of puzzle games they conjure up images of falling blocks and grids of brightly colored jewels. Play MECHANIC MASTER long enough and you might end up picturing complex arrangements of tennis balls, scissors, and anvils instead.

Midway's new puzzle game has players placing and manipulating a variety of everyday objects -- as well as a few outlandish ones -- in frozen environments that are later set in motion, at which point balls fall, flames ignite, and magnets attract, setting off a chain of events that (hopefully) results in a desired consequence, such as the freeing of a caged captive, or the squishing of a purple, googly-eyed blob. It forces players to consider causal relationships and plan out series of complicated events, making it one of the more thought-provoking puzzle games currently available.

Mechanic Master's puzzles are wonderfully engaging. Once players start to learn the relationships governing object interaction -- robot sweepers will be drawn to spilled trash, UFO abduction beams will attract anything that passes beneath them, a falling tennis ball will depress buttons and ignite lighters -- they won't be able to help but start thinking about all the ways these objects can be used to solve the problems set before them. And with more than 100 puzzles, plus support for building and sharing custom conundrums with friends over local WiFi DS networks, they'll have countless hours in which to practice deploying and manipulating the game's many objects.

However, the fun is dampened somewhat by shoddy graphics and a complete lack of style. Decidedly simple audio and visual design makes Mechanic Master feel like a game that could have been created a decade or more ago. What's more, its presentation is utterly lacking in personality. No attempt has been made to create a memorable visual theme or give the game some sense of character. It's as though the puzzles were designed individually, then cobbled together with no overarching goal. Better production values and presentation could have made Mechanic Master one of the must have puzzlers of 2008. As is, it's merely good.