After the resounding success of Puzzle Quest, it became clear that there is a serious market for new games that mix classic puzzle elements with an adventure story. TiQal seems to find itself in that mixing of genres, but is not nearly as robust.

The initial gameplay is akin to any number of Tetris clones. You have a variety of blocks in different shapes and colors that randomly appear at the top of the grid, and you must align them so that when they fall they will match up with similarly colored blocks. One of the key differences in this game is the quickly gaining combos. You need at least a 4x4 square to get the blocks to destruct and free up space, but you have a few seconds between each connection to continue building up that colored portion. The more you can string together, the higher your score, and the more you'll fill your power-up meter.

These power-ups come in a variety of flavors, all themed to the jungle ambiance, such as spears that eliminate columns or rows, magic totems that destroy whole sections or spells that slow time (as the wall of blocks is also constantly moving upwards, to further enhance the difficulty) or lower the wall, giving you some temporary reprieve.

All of this puzzle action is tempered by a Mayan adventure that is told through brief text messages between stages. You'll travel through several different locales, including the jungle and Mayan pyramids. Each level has a unique backdrop, most of them gorgeously rendered, with appropriate jungle beats playing in the background. However, the story elements are minimal. It's an extremely linear quest that won't leave any lasting impressions, but it does make your first play through feel more meaningful than your standard block puzzle game would.

To top off the content, there are a few multiplayer modes, both versus and co-op, which can be played locally or on Xbox Live. However, after several days of trying to find online players to compete against, we came up empty-handed, which probably means the game is not establishing a large player base.

TiQal is a simple puzzle game that you'll be able to fully grasp after a few levels, but takes time to master. The story mode leaves a lot to be desired, which makes the single player campaign feel repetitive, but for puzzle fans, this one is clever enough to warrant a look.