Ahhh, yeah! It's another beautiful, cloudy day. The birds are singing, the rain is sprinkling, and you are Kumo Lumo, a fluffy cloud with a whole lot of mojo and not a care in the world. That is, until the world comes along and begs your help. Now you must save the world, quite literally, in this unique simple concept game from Blitz Games Studios and Team Lumo.

Play this "rain 'em up!" by using your cloud magic, er, rain to grow the good and douse out the bad, so the world can not worry and be happy. Of course, you know what happens when the world asks you to do it a little favor; it begins with a small request, "Let's water some trees," but soon becomes water trees, put out fires, gather clouds, avoid smoggy bits, stop volcanoes... You know, all in an honest day's work as a happy cumulus hero.

All these actions are easily carried out on your mobile device with three control modes—multitouch, joystick (which re-positions the control buttons on your screen) or tilt—so you can choose the method that best fits your cloudy style. Then, fly around the world building mountains and befriending whales, avoiding things that will evaporate you out of existence and collecting those things like wooly sheep to replenish your power. On each of the 36 levels, you'll encounter interesting new elements along with a specific objective to complete.

At first your nimble fingers and swift moves are all that's needed to accomplish these missions but you'll have to stay alert to catch flying coins, collecting enough to power-up light showers into torrential downpours and make mild sparks become electrifying jolts. If you'd rather, a few reasonable in-app purchases can fast forward you into superhero status. However you go about it, such leet skills will be pretty handy in overcoming the difficulties ahead.

Kumo Lumo feels like interactive art with its lovely design and delightful pop-up artwork but it is also surprisingly full of gameplay, more than you'd suspect when you first pick it up. Each successive mission is more challenging than the last, bringing in an eclectic array of characters and harder goals to reach; you won't be breezing through to the end without using strategy and skill. Yet while the action of the game is exceptionally compelling, perhaps the greatest joy in playing Kumo Lumo comes from beholding the whimsical animations while an upbeat melody and the world's grateful encouragement urges you onward.

How to best describe the fun? It's as addictively gratifying as bubble wrap and totally uplifting. After all, it's hard to feel gloomy when you're a cloud that's so full of sunshine!

Kumo Lumo

(iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.