Reviewed on the Xbox 360

If you've ever played Pipe Mania on Windows (or even the hacking minigame in BioShock) you'll find puzzle game Droplitz familiar. The main goal in the game is to create a path from the Droplitz generators at the top of the screen to the reservoirs at the bottom by rotating and aligning dials. It's a simple concept, but developer Blitz has added enough nuance and polish to create a highly addictive experience regardless.

Let's start with the music (if you're reading the full version of this review, you can listen to a sample in the video embedded below) -- like in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, the soundtrack isn't integral to the actual gameplay, but it plays such an important role establishing the game's character and "feel" that it might as well be. Here, the charming techno beats are accented by the pings and pops of the Droplitz themselves, and each completed path adds another layer of musical effects. The same goes for the art style -- ever-changing themes and bright, fluid graphics visually reward you for completing paths and collecting Droplitz.

One main issue that bugged us was a mildly unforgiving difficulty curve. We unlocked two of the game's four modes quickly, but the third and fourth eluded us for longer than we'd hoped (unlocked by scoring a certain number of points). Even at the individual board level, we would play with relative ease for roughly 10 minutes before finding ourselves struggling to keep up (and eventually losing) in the last few. Not that a casual game like Droplitz needs gameplay sessions longer than 10-15 minutes, but we would've gladly traded unexpected difficulty spikes for a more gradual increase.

In any case, the immensely satisfying micro-level gameplay far outweighs the minor difficulty problems in the game -- if you're looking for a new time-waster on the PC, 360 or PS3, definitely give Droplitz a spin.

Robin Yang is an Assistant Editor at GameDaily who really needs a new headshot for these things. Oh yeah, and something something Droplitz pun. Bored? Follow her on Twitter at @robinyang!