It's a boring rainy day and you're in the mood for a good old puzzle with some strategy thrown in. You're tired of sudoku and you've had a personal vendetta against Minesweeper for a few years now. But fret not, help is at hand! Gnomeland Security by The Narf! Workshop is (if you can't tell from the name) a puzzle game where you plant mushrooms. Oh, and there's a gnome or two for good measure.

You get a board divided into grassy tiles with a few gnomes here and there. They wear cute little hats with numbers, which tells you how many mushrooms you're supposed to put around them (hatless gnomes don't like anything growing next to them). Click to plant a mushroom, click again to remove it, or hold down the left mouse button to place a marker. Mushrooms send rays of light in all four directions, and you mustn't plant them inside each other's rays. The goal is to light up all the tiles. If you mess up, you can always start over, or get a new board. There are no levels as such, as boards are randomly generated, but if challenge is what you want, the gnomes have you covered. You can choose among three difficulty levels and nine board sizes. If that's not enough, there are two gameplay modes, classic (not timed) and survival, in which you start off with 40 seconds and get a few more with each new stage.

Gnomeland Security is quite superb in its simplicity. It's cute, but not overdone, with simple, clean graphics and straightforward goals, pleasing background music, and enough variety to keep you entertained for a good while. All in all, your perfect rainy day diversion.

Play Gnomeland Security