With so many games in the iTunes Store, it’s easy to overlook plenty of more obscure, lesser-known games that, in many ways, prove to be more thought-provoking or original. There are already hundreds, if not thousands of block-breaking or bubble-popping games, so much that I don’t even want to experiment with any more now that I have a select few I go back to again and again. If anything, I want a game more mentally challenging, one that actually requires logic, a quality plenty of developers tout their game possesses, when, frankly, there’s no logic to be had at all.

Enter Twistrix by Avalon Alliance. Now, this is a puzzle game – it’s name is even a bit of a puzzle, spinning fumbles on your tongue. The concept is similar to a rubik’s cube in that there are moving bits and pieces, all involving configurations of sorts, that, once resolved, lend the puzzle to becoming organized by color scheme. However, unlike the rubix cube, there is no set algorithm for solving the puzzle – you must instead rely on a sequence of logic, moving pieces one slot at a time, and filling empty slots with other pieces. In this manner, Twistrix resembles more those sliding puzzles kids get for free in goodie bags from Chuck E Cheese, or as party favors, the puzzles scrambled in a small, 2 inch square with many squares within, that, once arranged in order, reveal a stunning, teenage heartthrob or puppy.

Twistrix is arranged in its own, unique fashion. If it resembles anything at all, it would be a traffic light, with its initial red and green colored dots, set inside a revolving gray-green turntable of sorts. The entire contraption may be spun to the left or right, or you may spin individual rows, once again, to the left or right. All the rows stacked upon each other (each level has varying amounts of rows) create columns, of which only one is facing you at a time, but each holds its own assortment of colored balls. An empty slot is available each round – sometimes more – to aid you in moving the balls around, and you must figure out how to move the balls – up and down, rotating the rows – so that each column holds a stack of like colored balls (i.e. a stack of 5 red balls). To make matters more challenging, as you progress through the levels, more colors are added.

The graphics may not be particularly stunning, and sometimes my finger will fail to illicit a response from the game, but Twistrix accomplishes its most important goal: it’s a brain twister, in a deeply furrowed brow kind of way. I admit to fumbling a bit on the first round – the first round - and I sheepishly twisted things, moved things here and there, before I finally developed a feeling for the game. It’s not that the game, itself, isn’t intuitive, it’s just the mechanism, the turntable, is a puzzle premise unlike any I’ve seen, and so it took a few moments for my brain to register the logical progression of things. Once I understood the mechanism, it was free-flying; mind you, I’m not saying it was easy, merely, the puzzles made sense. And, that is the best puzzle of all.