Mitchell Corporation's (who!?!) addictive game Puzz Loop has been around for years and seen some spin offs, the most notable being the ever popular Zuma, but a true sequel has arrived in the form of Magnetica, an enjoyable DS title that expands on the original formula by adding the important element of touch screen control. It's yet another solid game to add to Nintendo's new Touch Generation's line, even if there's nothing else to it than just flicking balls...ahem...we're sorry..."marbles" around the bottom screen.

The goal in Magnetica is to group three or more like-colored marbles together to make them disappear. Each stage has a differently shaped ramp of sorts and a continuous line of marbles wind their way around en route to a reactor. If they reach the reactor you're toast, so you'll want to destroy as many as possible not only by linking three, but strategically aiming for much larger groups and taking advantage of power ups that'll result in much larger explosions. It's also possible to create combos, so the game has a nice layer of complexity that should delight you if you're a strategist.

In Puzz Loop, you fire the marbles using a launcher in the vein of the Bust-A-Move franchise, but in Magnetica, all you have to do is grab the next marble with the stylus and flick it in a direction, and what's really cool is the speed of the marble is dependant upon how fast you flick the stylus, which allows you to be all lazy or frantically thread the needle before the reactor goes critical. And the controls are spot on, so if anything goes wrong it's definitely your fault.

I'm also pleased with the various gameplay modes which, while not as imaginative as Tetris DS', definitely extend the replay value. Challenge Mode tasks you to clear 99 stages, Quest Mode throws 50 different missions at you, Puzzle Mode asks you to clear all of the marbles on the screen using a set number of marbles, and finally, there's a two player versus mode that can be played with one or two copies of the game. And what makes that especially cool, aside from battling an opponent to clear marbles, are the various power ups that you can take advantage of. Black holes swallow all of their marbles, ion clouds drop smoke onto their screen (that can be removed by blowing into the DS' microphone), virus turn all of their marbles into ball bearings, recoil plops these marble-deflecting pillars, and the graviton alters the trajectory of his or her launched marbles.

Magnetica isn't the best puzzle game on the DS (Tetris...FTW), but it's still pretty damn sweet. I went into it not expecting anything special and was pleasantly surprised, so if you've been searching for a fast-paced marble blaster (and you probably have), I strongly suggest that you buy this game immediately.