Azada

Written by: David Laprad
Published: August 19, 2007

Azada must have been the result of a late-night brainstorming session in which the developers tossed out ideas like giddy adolescents. While playing the game, which draws on just about every possible idea for a casual offering, you can almost hear its creators saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if we added a sliding tile puzzle, and a match-three stage, and a memory game, and a…"

But Azada rises above its mishmash origins to become one of the most brilliant casual games in recent memory. Your goal is to unlock the fragments of a painting by solving a series of puzzles. Some puzzles consist of a room from you must escape, adventure-style. In these areas, you search for, collect and use items to crack the overall enigma. Other puzzles consist of a challenge you must overcome, such as the sliding tile puzzle mentioned above. You'll encounter dozens of these stages throughout the game, and no two are the same.

It's evident a tremendous amount of work went into Azada. The room escape puzzles are great fun to work out, and while the other challenges are too easy, the fun comes in doing something different at every turn. Moreover, the game's 3D graphics look phenomenal. It's tempting to compare the visuals to Myst, but they're so much richer and bursting with character. If you enjoy casual games, you must try Azada.