I haven’t had time to sink my teeth into anything particularly meaty of late, but in the spare moments I can grab, I have been playing Picross.

My strengths do not lie in mathematics or logic (for example, I can do algebra, but not geometric proofs), and I have avoided the subjects as much as possible since leaving school. This type of puzzle (known as a nonogram) helps me exercise those little-used areas of my brain. In fact, I was feeling so good about my puzzling ability that I (successfully!) tried my hand at a few of the traditional-style logic puzzles on Puzzlers Paradise.

But after two sessions of “whose wife with which last name prefers what sport” and “which puppet show discussed what topic at what time”, I had to give my brain a break, and clicked on over to Orsinal’s soothing pastels and gentle background music. I love how balanced these games feel; they’re never complicated or strenuous, and they tend to loop, so as long as you’ve got enough skill, you could continue playing forever.

Speaking of forever, that’s how long I could gaze at this gif of a panda rolling down a hill:

This video shows a little bit of the action from the upcoming Namco Bandai Release, Panda-San Nikki (Panda Diary), or as it’s known in the US, National Geographic Panda.

Wow, this game is an easy sell. Cute animals – check. Rolling cute animals around with stylus – check. Promises in site intro of pandas on slides – check.

Oh yeah…presumably it’s educational in some way, too (it does have “National Geographic” in the title). But we all know what’s important, here; the gameplay consists of “take care of pandas, receive more pandas.” It has nothing to do with facts about bamboo growth, and everything to do with fuzzy panda bellies and how many times I can rub them.

More info here, here and here.

(with thanks to the Cornish Game Hen)