Day a little dull? Colours a little dreary? QuantZ is a stunning physics based match 3 (or rather, match 4) game with puzzle elements and a beautiful presentation. With three styles of play and a hefty amount of stages in each, QuantZ offers a lot of soothing play that is about as casual, and as beautiful, as you can get.

Have you always wanted to be an architect? Well, this colourful physics puzzle game about using Tetris-style blocks to reach your height requirements probably isn't the most realistic example of architectural design you'll find. And if you think it is, you need to let us know so we can never ever come to visit you.

Aside from an optional "acid" reskin, Cover Orange: Players Pack keeps the same mechanics as its predecessors. That's because this game contains the winners of a level design contest. There were $4000 in prizes, including a $1000 prize for the top level, which is something pretty cool to think about when you're playing it. "This single level cost $1000. Wow. I had better have a really good time." And you will

If the fast pace of modern life is bogging you down man, just take a few minutes, listen to the sublime acoustic guitar tunes, and realign your inner peace with these balls of light, dude. Light up the clear spheres by removing balls until the lighted sphere touches them. It's that easy dude, no joke. I told you I would take care of you

What more can be done in the world of precarious manipulations of gravity and inertia? Enter Imperfect Balance, the newest game in the series, which flips the Perfect Balance concept on its head. Now instead of the precision stacking of shapes into perfectly sturdy forms, Imperfect Balance features the precision stacking of shapes into perfectly unsturdy forms. It's not about perfect construction, but about perfect collapse.

Blocks and physics puzzles; they go together like pineapples and cream cheese! (Just... trust me.) Picture Cubes is a lovely 3D puzzle game where you push and pull blocks around the screen to create some genuinely pretty art. While not what one might call exciting, Picture Cubes is the perfect way to relax after a long day.

Roll, roll, roll your Jolls all around the screen! Catchin' babies, jumpin' gaps, life is but a dream!... what do you mean, that's not how it goes? Clearly, you've never played this physics puzzle about that very thing! From the creator of Civiballs comes a game about babies, fans, and making yourself bigger or smaller, as the situation demands. Don't worry, it'll all make sense when you play it. Trust us.

Why did the sheep cross the road? Because he wanted to get to the physics/puzzle/platforming game inspired by Wallace and Gromit's Shaun the Sheep from Aardman Animations! BWAHAHAHA... ha... hm. Okay, so that wasn't funny. But Home Sheep Home is guaranteed to put a smile on your face with its charming visuals and simple, accessible gameplay, even if it won't exactly challenge you.

A space themed puzzle that puts you in the role of dashing space miner. Use your gravity wells to siphon off the colorful "stuff" provided by gas planets, and guide it to your absorbers. Okay, maybe it doesn't sound too daring or exciting, even if you do manage to cast Bruce Willis in the lead role (which isn't the case here), but Eon does manage to provide a beautiful puzzle experience that is as elegant in its technical design as it is in its pixelated visuals.

Between the kicking music, the fantastic anime-like visuals and animations, and the sheer fun of watching a round kitty cat power suck sushi make up for a lot. Not the greatest game around, but one of the most entertaining time-wasters imaginable. Surreal, silly mayhem in 15 levels. Just the sort of thing to put a smile on your face and brighten up your day.

Do you hate blocks? Sure you do. Look at them, sitting up there... judging you... laughing at you... not knocked down for points and fun... who do they think they are?! Well, in this snappy physics puzzle game you can give them their comeuppance! Blosics is back with a sequel, and it's bigger and better than ever.

Wake the Royalty is Eugene Karataev's sequel to Wake Up the Box, with a pleasant, hypnotic tune by ImperfectDisciple accompanying it. 25 levels in all, this iteration doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but it's still a fun little diversion. If you're looking for a good phuzzle to waste a bit of time, look no further.

Cover Orange 2 is longer (25 levels, as opposed to 20 in the original), trickier (some levels require very precise placement and timing), and then there's the level editor. Players who've managed to get all the way through can then try to create a level (or levels) of their own, limited only by their imaginations and, of course, the laws of physics. It's nice amid the glut of casual gameplay to be found out there that a designer listens to the gamers and uses that advice to create something even better than the first, even when the first game was pretty cool to begin with.

WereBox is a fun little challenge that will brighten your day. Lurking in the darkness, transforming to save the day, be the hero and vanquish the wicked reds so that life in the city can return to normal. Well, normal for balls anyway. It's a physics puzzle with a twist, as you turn balls to boxes and back again to complete each level.

How many crates could a penguin stack if a penguin could stack crates? You're about to find out. There isn't a human in sight, so it's up to you and our fine flippered friend to transport crates of live, bouncy, feisty animals to the nearest zoo with only your stacking skills, a battered red pickup, and a physics engine on your side.

It's word game meets physics puzzle in Prose and Motion, a unique game by DeeperBeige. Click and drag letters to the starting point on each stage, carefully arranging them one by one in a neat little row. Spell a word to move on to the next level, spell the correct word and you're even more awesome!

Go To Hell is a skill- and reflexes-oriented puzzle game by Metasauce, creator of Hex Empire. One part digging game, one part physics playground, the title welds the two elements together into a tightly-structured experience that's as intriguing to play around with as it is to beat.

Think construction work is boring? Maybe you aren't using enough guided missiles. Unleash the awesome power of the yellow hard hat as you use everything from explosions to wrecking balls to airplanes to destroy buildings and make your cash quota in Nitrome's explosive (literally) take on the physics demolition game.

Use the awesome powers of ninja billiards to save the world from undead viral domination! Now there's a weird sentence. As Viro, a tiny globular ninja, shoot your way through the ranks of the monsters to infect them with a disease so they aren't a threat in 120 levels of physics puzzle mayhem that will test your skill and your fondness for the colour pink.

What makes a game relaxing? Despite featuring a large quantity of whizzing, brightly-colored particles and a constantly counting down timer, Pulsus somehow manages to be a game I'd like to pick up and play at o'dark hundred while sipping a cup of herbal tea until I get sleepy again.

Stacking things on top of other things has never been more fun... or more tricky! Try to achieve the correct weight on the scales to balance both sides, but watch out; create a single solid row of blocks and they'll vanish, Tetris style! So warm up that thinker between your ears and put on your puzzle solving gloves, because Libra will test your mettle like few other games will.

Not quite a pipe puzzle and not quite a gear puzzle, Grayscale is a melding of the two genres into something both unique to play and easy on the eyes. The difficulty ramps up quite nicely and is enough to hold interest through the levels as you struggle to produce the black and white fireworks that denote success. Quite a lot of brain twisting, turning, and teasing bundled up into a beautiful little bow.

The clans of the Norse-themed world of Nitrome's popular Ice Breaker series are gathering, but they need your help to release their Viking warriors from their icy, impossible, Goldbergian prisons! Ice Breaker: The Gathering provides short but succulent tidbits of new Ice Breaker levels for fans of the series.

Perfect Balance 2 is all about balance in its simplest form. Its down to the basics of physics here, where your goal is to stack a bunch of weird pieces on top of a bunch of other weird pieces and get them all to stay. Get it all assembled, then try and drop a few bonus diamonds on the pile for huge bonus points.

Mr. Box has gotten himself in a bit of a conundrum falling asleep wherever you find him, and it's your job to wake him up! Push him, pull him, tip him over... whatever gets the job done. Short but solid, Wake Up The Box provides 20 winks of physics puzzle goodness and a bit of charm to boot!

Circulate is a physics puzzle game from Pi Eye Games, creator of System Mania and the far-too-cute Kitten Sanctuary. This simple title is built around moving marbles through a circular container so they disappear, whether that be through forming matches, falling into black holes, or even smacking into bombs.

Quick, intrepid casual gamer! The world is not at stake, but someone has inconsiderately left these brightly coloured balls lying about! We need someone with a steely eye to launch them into their matching buckets in this physics game of skill. Sound easy? You may be surprised. Simple, effective, and fun, BucketBall 2 is the perfect way to spend your coffee break.

Rain can be a destructive force, whether it's flash floods decimating crops, acid rain ruining an entire ecosystem, or a light drizzle canceling your afternoon jog. The new physics puzzle game Cover Orange introduces us to a whole new threat: spiky ball rain, which could threaten citrus fruit everywhere.

On the list of things that are more useful in video games than they are in the real world, grappling hooks are certainly near the top. Acquiring a grappling hook in the real world is positively thrilling, until you start thinking of ways you can actually (and legally) use it. Fortunately, the aptly-titled Grappling Hook isn't grounded in reality. The puzzle platformer from SpeedRunGames is filled with 22 levels of quick-thinking grappling goodness that is sure to keep you zooming around for hours.

At first glance, Spectro Destroyer could be one of any number of platform shooters. Run and gun through the levels, taking out alien scum and robotic sentries trying to halt your progress. Then you realize there's more to this than shooting everything in sight. It's more like line-of-sight. In fact, Spectro Destroyer is just the opposite of the "shoot first, ask questions later" side-scrollers like Metal Slug and Abuse. Instead, it's an amalgam of a platform shooter and a physics puzzle. And that, my friends, is a lot of fun.

This week's You Are Games challenge leverages the awesome and unique opportunity being offered by Inexile Entertainment with its new Prius-branded version of a fan favorite here at JIG! Fans of physics puzzles and fuel efficiency, your time has come at last! Fantastic Contraption is back with a new look, new levels, and a chance to win $1,000!

Cuber is a short but cute and enjoyable physics puzzle that will test your construction skills to the limit.All you must do is keep the smiling little green ball from falling off the screen. To do this, construct something from the available materials and then let the little ball drop. You are limited only by your imagination and your budget.

Lights, camera... Magnets! A surprisingly tricky little physics puzzler whose good looks and promises of a higher score than all your friends will lure you into losing an entire afternoon. Guide your projectiles to their targets using as few magnets as possible to keep your score in tact and your bragging rights in good standing. With a sleek presentation and some clever layouts, Magnets will tease your brain for a good long while.

Huje Tower is a construction game, a member of a fairly new genre of puzzle games. Most construction games end up being bridge-building or tower building games. The most well-known and is no doubt the popular indie title World of Goo, and Huje Tower shares a number of similarities with it. But there are a number of differences that help Huje Tower stand on its own as a fun and challenging construction game with some puzzle elements to it.

Distort the magnetic force of the world to smash through the targets in this psychedelic puzzle game with a warped sense of style. MagnetiZR requires a sharp eye, a dose of patience, and a willingness to experiment. Don't worry; this is one time when it's okay to play with magnets on your computer.

The goal of Springen, the latest physics puzzle on the block, is to get every red ball on the black ring, or at least as many as you need to progress to the next level. The majority of the puzzles require crafty feats of ball-flinging, and you'll have to learn to use some of the obstacles to your advantage if you hope to make it through all 30 levels of phuzzling goodness. The balls are heavier than they look, and when you add a wealth of bumpers, gravity wells, and other gizmos between you and the ending hoop, some of the puzzles test your luck as well.

Protonaut is best described as a platform physics puzzler: a platformer covered in a velvety layer of physics, served with a generous dosage of puzzler. The premise of the game is fairly simple: you are a small character (presumably the Protonaut), tasked with collecting all of the gaseous elements in each level. Run, jump, and shoot projectiles to solve each level's puzzle.

Civiballs 2 is a phuzzle, heavy on the uzzle. Guide colored balls to their respective urns by cutting chains and letting momentum do its thing. This is one sequel that packs just as much oomph as the original!

The first 99 Bricks stuffed the standard Tetris formula full of physics, and now the sequel has crammed a whole bunch of RPG elements in there. How many genres can Tetris possibly hold? With your help, the vigilant Garry must save the kingdom of Brickonia from dire peril, and that means you need to build a whole lotta towers out of tetrimino blocks. Weird like a beard, man.

Everyone has heard the phrase "Like a kid in a candy store". But how about "Like a kid in a warehouse full of expensive, fragile items. With a cannon. And physics." Less whimsical and more terrifying, isn't it? Max Damage wants you to cause the maximum damage to carefully arranged items across 49 levels using various types of ammunition to rack up a big score. It's a game for the sandbox bully in all of us, with none of the mess to clean up afterwards.

Every gaming sub-genre has to grow up and develop angst some day, and for a lot of them, that means they go steampunk. Use your clockwork pistol scalpel to reshape blocks and sever ropes in this collection of over 40 physics puzzles. If you're a fan of Splitter or Ice Breaker and you want some more levels, possibly a bunch of really obtuse and particular ones, here they are. They are here. Enjoy.

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink! Actually, that couldn't be any more inaccurate here. In I-Fluid by Exkee, you are a drop of water, and your task is to navigate an intricate 3D world of a kitchenette that seems to be rather devoid of water. With the outward appearance of a platformer but the heart of a phuzzler, I-Fluid boasts an incredibly realistic atmosphere and a solid set of challenges to go with it.

It's a ball! It's magnetic! It's... MagnetiBall! Flip, roll, and magnetize your way through sixty levels of increasing difficulty in this tricky little physics puzzler. It's a test of reflexes, with a dash of brain power and a sprinkling of luck, that makes for a surprisingly addictive experience.

A frothing geyser of black vapor lies somewhere in every level, and it's up to you to send the shivering little protagonist tumbling into the miasma. The game's kind enough to tuck a decidedly useful trick up your sleeve: white objects can be disintegrated with but a single click of the mouse.

Disk Field is a simple yet engrossing action puzzler that works wonders with a fairly basic concept. Your goal is to guide your black and white disk into the red hole. But instead of controlling the disk directly, you rotate the arrows on the field of play, like an undulating topographical map.

Warp Shot is what would happen if aliens from an advanced civilization came to Earth and decided golf wasn't awesome enough and needed more gravity wells, black holes, and rockin' guitar solos. From John Cooney and Armor Games comes a quirky little physics puzzle game where you sling a spot of light across a play field to reach the exit, collecting orbs and avoiding nuisances like gravitational pull along the way.

The basic premise remains unchanged: your charge, a yellow smiley face with eyes eerily glued to your mouse, must make its way to the exit circle in each level one way or another. All you've got are whatever contraptions are lying around the level, your wits, and a cursor that can slice right through solid wood like it was string cheese.

Moonlights gives you World of Goo-like building tools, a simple star-speckled background, and soothing music. Then it asks you to build a tower to the moon. With several different kinds of building surfaces, an accessible level editor, and a meditative tone, this is one of the most laid-back construction games around.

The title sounds like the name of a top-secret Cold War superweapon, or perhaps a very specialized brand of bleach, but Red Remover has nothing to do with either Soviets or stains. Instead, this latest offering from Gaz charges you with the task of removing all of the melancholy red blocks in a level while keeping all the exuberant greens.

Grenades and baddies and physics, oh my! Adjust your angle to lob grenades from a limited supply at waiting targets to get the best scores and achievements you can across thirty levels and three difficulty settings. Why do they look so happy about getting blown up? Who knows! Just remember; pull the pin, then throw it. It's okay. We get that messed up all the time, too. You should see our offices.

In our inaugural entry for a brand new feature, You Are Games, we are highlighting the latest from Grubby Games: Incredibots 2! Now in open beta, we are leveraging the community and level sharing aspect of the game with a mini-competition instead of a review. Announcing the Jay is Games Incredibots 2 Mini-Brawl!

Dynamic Systems, created by Lorenzo Nuvoletta, is another in a long line of games first made popular by The Incredible Machine, where you must fabricate an overly elaborate system of simple machines to perform a task that would hardly impress a toddler: putting a ball in a bucket.

Redstar Fall is back, with 20 more levels of physics puzzle mayhem. Blast away the tower of bricks one by one, to bring the red star to rest on solid ground. These new "Pro" levels are tough and finicky as a dried-up alley cat, so practice up on the first game before you tackle them.

How hard could building a bridge be? In a game where you have to retrieve an elephant from a distant island, the answer may surprise you. Cargo Bridge asks you to engineer a sturdy path for your movers as they transport crates, safes, and yes, elephants.

Help guide Spewer, an adorable pink blob, through a series of diabolical tests put forth by a watchful scientist in this physics-based platformer. It's a journey of adventure, excitement, and child-like wonder. Also, vomit.

If The Incredible Machine met the classic board game Mouse Trap, TubeTwist would be the result. Arrange tubes, accelerators and other contraptions to manipulate the path of the Macroton (a colored marble-like object) from the Injector Tube (the start) to the Reactor Tube (the finish). It's that simple!

Can you feel it? That buzzing in the air? That's the feeling of the excitement of a new Nitrome tingling at your senses. Or someone just stuck a fork in the microwave, but it's more likely the former. Power Up is a physics-based puzzler with a high-voltage bolt of challenging fun that lasts for up to 32 levels.

Bipole is a physics-heavy spin-cycle of a puzzler. The goal is simple: annihilate all the cute, smiling particles by colliding them with particles of the opposite charge, taking advantage of gravity and electrostatic attraction/repulsion to gain momentum.

How cute can you take it? If your answer is merely "pretty darn cute", that won't be enough. Even your cursor becomes pudgy and extra cuddly as you set out to help the little Euwins return home. Build bridges across 70 levels worth of waterways in Bridgecraft!

Using proprietary physics simulation technology, Collider lets you in on all the particle-smashing action you can handle! Simply annihilate all the charged particles by crashing the positive ones into the negative ones in this gritty physics-based puzzler.

Bumps is the latest physics puzzler from Utopian Games, and it has cute coming out of its ears. It's a charming combination of games like Eets and Loco Roco-esque Tau-ri Bedrock or Rolando. Bumps is something a little different: a little bit of strategy, a little bit of experimentation, and a lot of bubbly-eyed cuteness. Bumps is a great diversion for any afternoon!

A great game for fans of quirky physics puzzles, Civiballs asks you to drop colored orbs into the corresponding urns. Most orbs begin the level suspended in the air by chains and ropes. Your only method of interaction is to cut those cords, and let physics handle the rest, as the civiballs bounce and roll through a network of ramps and obstacles to reach their home.

Redstar Fall is a short but wonderfully executed and atmospheric entry in the physics-based stacking/unstacking genre. you begin each level with a pile of oddly-shaped blocks sitting on an island floating in the sky. Click on a block and it vanishes, allowing everything above to shift with the pull of gravity. Your goal is to ease the red star down so it comes to rest on the island.

Assembler 3, by Bryce Summer, is a game about TWITCHING RAGE or to be more specific, a physics-based puzzle game with 44 levels, in which you must carefully position green objects within their equally green outlines. Maddening and compelling, Assembler 3 is sure to scratch your itch for GRAAAAAAAGH JUST STAY ON THE STUPID WEDGE YOU STUPID CRATE! MRAAAAAAAGH!!!

What could be better than a game based on explosions? The goal is to get the yellow outlined cube to the bottom of the screen, and the only way to do it is by placing bombs in various locations and letting physics do the rest. The interesting part is how you can time the bombs to move blocks around the screen, one explosion after another.

Have you been wandering around in a haze since the first Perfect Balance, your heart crying out for the opportunity to wedge more things together? Do you miss the wedging like a starving shark misses bluefish? Then Perfect Balance: New Trials is here to offer you sweet, sweet, soul-crushing relief, in the form of 30 more levels of tough block stacking.

The vikings and the ice that trapped them have returned in an expansion on Nitrome's original physics-based puzzle game, Ice Breaker. Ice Breaker The Red Clan introduces lots of new obstacles to deal with strewn about an all-new set of levels. Vikings are trapped in the ice, walled-in by rock, or otherwise prevented from reaching the ship. Using your cursor as a cutting tool, it's your job to set them free. Manipulate each environment to provide a clear path from viking to ship and carve your way through 40 brand-new levels.

You remember Labyrinth, the board game where you turn knobs to roll a little steel ball to the exit, without hitting any holes along the way? Tilt is an example of the wooden labyrinth in 3D digital form, and an excellent one it is, too. Of course, one of the advantages of a digital version is the fact that the maze configuration does not have to stay static, and it certainly doesn't here. There are 66 different levels, many of them devilishly hard.

The idea, as always, is simple. Get the red ball (or square) to touch all the flags by drawing physical objects directly onto the screen with your crayon-like cursor. This sequel to Magic Pen features 32 more puzzling levels, all selectable from the moment you start the game, mostly set in various crayon-rendered versions of historical locations. The level designs feel a bit more intricate this time, with more on-screen obstacles and even a few moving contraptions to cope with. There are no major improvements to the formula, but such a childlike, pure idea doesn't need them. This is a heap more Magic Pen for everyone who loved it the first time. Enjoy.

Following the success of the first game in the series, Totem Destroyer 2 is bigger and better. In each level you must bomb all of the destructible blocks, without allowing the golden idol(s) to touch the ground. It's a beautifully executed follow-up to the excellent original, and it should not be missed. There's way more levels, new types of blocks, new types of idols, and even a level editor!

BubbleQuod is a physics-based puzzle-platformer from Ukrainian developer Garbuz Games. To free yourself from your self-constructed prison to keep out the dangers of the world, you must roll across fifty stages and seek the bubble-bursting pin. The developers offer two levels of difficulty: "normal," which allows for in-air control, and "hard," which is more realistic.

As any guy with a bottle of super glue and his ex-girlfriend's CD collection can tell you, it's fun to stack things on top of each other. So here's the deal: Super Stacker 2 offers 40 levels of shape stacking, ranging from pathetically easy to hand-crampingly difficult. If that's not enough, I have three very special words for you: Level. Editor. Booya.

Perfect Balance is an 80-level brick-stacking puzzle game that asks you to… wait for it… balance a collection of shapes… wait for it… perfectly on a tiny jutting spire, or maybe a slanted line, or a sprinkle of floating cubes. You'll enjoy how the puzzles ask you to understand different properties of physics, including friction and inertia. Solve two realms worth of challenges: "Harmony" and "Inferno".

In a world where vehicles are made up of cute, abstract creatures raptured by a conveyor belt, and everything is made of crazy blocks floating against a sky background, only the puzzle solvers will survive. Gurabitchon, another game by the Polygon Gmen, is a real zany stew of physics, gravity manipulation, and conveyor mechanics.

Actionscript guru Keith Peters has released a sequel to Gravity Pods, his unforgiving physics puzzle challenge from last year. Place gravity pods to direct a projectile from your turret to a purple exit gate. The level design is stunningly difficult, but that kind of adversity can be rewarding.

Color Infection and Color Infection2 are a pair of puzzle games based on the useful Box2D physics engine. They feature a bare-bones presentation and no music or sound effects, but their puzzle designs are incredibly devious. These are the kind of puzzles that make you sit back and bask in their cleverness, even as they taunt you with their arcane complexity.

Petri Purho of Kloonigames has a reputation for churning out experimental prototypes in a matter of days. In 2007 one of these prototypes was the sandbox-style puzzle game Crayon Physics. The premise was simple — use a "crayon" to draw shapes that immediately come alive and interact with each other, the ultimate goal being to collect a star somewhere on the screen. The experiment was a hit, and soon it was announced that a full-fledged version of the game was in the works: Crayon Physics Deluxe.

Newly thawed from Nitrome, Ice Breaker is a great-looking physics-based puzzle game involving vikings, chunks of ice, and vikings frozen inside chunks of ice. Using the mouse, simply draw lines to cut the ice and drop vikings onto the ship. You'll often need to manipulate the frozen environment to create a smooth path for the vikingcicles to slide down, so timing and a little experimentation with physics are your two best friends in this game.

Meeblings is a fun and quirky new action puzzle game from NinjaKiwi. If the title makes you think "Lemmings" then you're on the right track, but Meeblings is something different still. The objective is to get the target number of little Meeblings to any of the "Way Out" signs present in the level. Some levels have only one "way out", others have more.

Auditorium is a fantastic new puzzle game of music and light. Solve each level by manipulating the flow of light to create the perfect balance of music. The streams of light represent sound particles that you bend toward boxes until the audio levels are full. When the flow is correct, the audio levels fill up with the proper color and all the parts of the music will play. Delightful, brilliant and stunning.

IncrediBots is a brand new physics-based webtoy from Grubby Games, creator of the Professor Fizzwizzle series. Much like Fantastic Contraption and Line Rider before it, IncrediBots gives you a handful of simple tools and sets you free to explore your creative impulses. Draw shapes, connect them with joints, and tweak their basic properties to create living, moving, and functioning 'bots that can perform any task. You can even make movies, complete with text, than can be shared with the IncrediBots community.

Hanna in a Choppa is a physics-based puzzle/action game where you fly around and do stuff in a helicopter. It's true! Across 21 levels you'll perform a handful of ordinary, challenging, and downright funny tasks such as bake a cake (even though it's a lie), pull down a tower of goo, herd sheep, and give a giant a haircut, all with the aid of your trusty winch. The game creates a fun sandbox-type atmosphere and encourages you to play with the environment as much as possible. And play you shall!

Splitter is an intriguing puzzle game that tasks you with moving a yellow smiley face to the exit. To get there, use the cursor (which is a knife!) to slice wooden blocks and cut strings to unleash the fury of physics!

StarShine 2 is the sequel to last year's celestial puzzler, and is the latest in a line of jewel-like games from Hero Interactive. You control a shooting star, positioning it somewhere on the circumference of a circle surrounding the play field with the mouse. Your goal is to set-up a chain reaction that hits and lights up every star.

World of Goo is a phenomenally creative physics-based building game where you assemble bits of goo to form structures leading to an exit pipe in each stage. The visuals are stunning, the sense of humor wry, and there are gameplay innovations at every corner.

Released in 2005 by German game developers FAKT Software, Crazy Machines was a cult classic that only recently began to breach the barrier to "fan-favorite" status among casual gamers. Publicized mainly by word of mouth, this out-of-the-ordinary puzzle game staked its claim as the next-generation leap from The Incredible Machine, which reached its height of popularity almost a decade earlier. The common theme in both games is the use of Rube Goldberg-inspired machines and contraptions to solve a puzzle or obstacle in each level.

Aether is a gloriously imaginative and atmospheric puzzle adventure game in which you swing through the stars to reach several different planets, each with a unique puzzle to solve. The designers have made a truly compelling experience, and it's a fantastic artistic endeavor. You can also just spend some time flying through space or the clouds, the music and movement are so relaxing.

Is anyone tired of Portal-inspired games about some faceless dude stuck in a sterile laboratory environment full of death traps yet? I know I'm not! Here's another one, comin' atcha! Control a smoothly animated silhouette of a man who is trapped in the middle of a giant maze full of spikes and shifting blocks. Alter gravity by rotating the entire room 90 degrees at a time!

A new action puzzle game from NinjaKiwi, Boombot is beautifully simple and well-executed. Your job, as some sort of evil omniscient explosives technician, is to maneuver an itty-bitty robot called Boombot to the exit of each level. Aside from the black bombs under your control, you'll have to manipulate TNT, oil drums, and explosive Senso-Gel to clear all fifty levels.

A sort of physics-based puzzler, Putt Base tasks you with holes that would make a mini-putt master balk, and then asks that you complete each with a hole-in-one. Sound impossible? Don't worry, to your credit you get to edit the course to your liking with a limited number of several different blocks that can change the direction your ball travels, give it a little boost, or nullify the bounce while increasing momentum.

There's something satisfying about destroying things. Knowing that someone spent time and energy building something up, only to have you rush in and smash it to bits? Deeply, deeply satisfying. But unless we specialize in demolition, warfare, or catty schoolhouse comments, this desire to destroy goes unfulfilled. So for us normal people, there's physics-based destroyer games like DUI.

Fantastic Contraption is a physics puzzle game in which the objective in each level is to move all red objects into a rectangular goal area. To do this, you are given a blue rectangular building area and a few different materials in which you can build your device. Standing in your way, however, are a variety of obstacles, ranging from gaping gaps to a sea of circles bent on destroying your red-object-mover-apparatus.

Cannons have a unique place in human history. Throughout the ages, they have served as an offensive weapon to knock down fortifications, an accentuation in pieces of classical music, and a rudimentary yet entertaining transport for clowns. Continuing in this rich tradition, let's launch stickmen at bricks to dignified tunes!

Totem Destroyer is, to say the least, an ironic name for this little jewel of a puzzler, considering that the very last thing you want to do is destroy the totem. The goal of each level is to instead retrieve the tiny golden little idol unharmed. Keeping you from your prize is the precariously stacked structure upon which its perched. Your goal is to selectively destroy the required number of blocks for each stage without letting the totem touch the ground.

Neon has a certain glitz to it. Whether it's glittering in the lights of Las Vegas, shining in the sign of a convenience store, or just brightening up the periodic table, neon always adds a little extra to everything it touches. It was only a matter of time, then, before someone mixed the brilliance of neon with the brilliance of puzzles.

A casual portal-physics game that's a well-polished piece with concepts paralleling the Flash version of Portal, as well as other titles like Shift 2 and Cursor*10. But instead of being a simple portal manipulation game, Epsilon explores two other physical properties aside from spatial relativity; time and gravity!

Stardrone is a genre mashup download game, featuring a mix of elements including arcade action, pinball, breakout, gravitational physics and collect-the-objects. Although it might sound a little confusing, the game simply boils down to you (a ball) lighting up stars to reach an objective, and it's remarkably fun to play!

SteerWheels is a fun little physics-based action puzzle in which the objective is to move the little yellow ball to the yellow goal of each level by pushing it with a set of wheels. If you're like me, you love physics-based puzzle games like this. We've seen more and more of them lately as Flash has matured, and I never tire of playing them.

Planet of the Forklift Kid is a whimsical physics-based platform puzzle game, controlled with the keyboard. Your goal in each level is to reach the exit, usually by operating switches to open the doors blocking your path. It is an all-around well-crafted game that is so charming and odd that it's worth playing even though there are, at present, only 8 levels.

Magic Pen is a physics-based puzzle playground created by Alejandro Guillen (Spin the Black Circle). It's easy to see the design, from visual style to overall concept, was taken from Crayon Physics, but because Magic Pen was done in Flash, it's much more accessible. Using the mouse, simply draw shapes to create bridges and guide the red ball to the flag. Making shapes and dropping them from the sky will set the ball in motion, and you can also craft structures with hinges (both fixed and movable) for more complex maneuvers.