Got a hankering for some logic puzzles? Ideas Pad has your fix with Puzzler World, a collection of over 1,200 puzzles ranging from crossword to sudoku to Link-a-Pix. Featuring a big, friendly interface and a straightforward setup, Puzzler World lets you jump right into the games without having to fuss with anything. It's just pure puzzles and a whole lot of head scratching.

Puzzler World doesn't try to package a story or fancy interface around these games, and honestly, why would it? The quickplay option from the main screen lets you jump right into things, or you can go the challenge mode route if you want some sort of greater goal. Here, you're rewarded with points for completing puzzles efficiently. These points can be used to buy hints later in the game, so you might want to save them up for a very rainy day.

After you create your profile you have immediate access to over 500 puzzles, each of varying difficulty and style. Choose from some familiar standards such as crosswords, wordsearches, sudoku puzzles, spot the difference games and Link-a-Pix puzzles from Conceptis. You'll also come across fitword, which gives you a selection of words that must be placed on a crossword-like grid, the simple coloring game silhouette, and the decipher-centric codeword, which is probably the most unusual (and interesting) of the bunch.

In addition to the eight varieties listed above, when you complete a puzzle you're rewarded with a bonus challenge in the form of jigsaw puzzles, a quick round of hangman, an anagram game, or a simple "find the missing piece" mini-game, all of which can be replayed by selecting them from their respective locations.

Analysis: The phrase "no-nonsense" comes to mind when thinking of Puzzler World, and it's a very fitting label. Being able to jump right into a game and play so many types of logic puzzles is a massive boon, as sometimes you just want to play a game, not fuss with a game. Puzzler World does an excellent job of this, creating an interface that puts everything you want right in front of your face.

Another big bonus for Puzzler World is the ability to play difficult puzzles right from the start. None of this unlocking mess, if you want a greater challenge, just scroll down and choose the harder puzzles. After all, it's your game, right?

The handwriting recognition option in Puzzler World is a mixed bag, and it's probably more useful on the Nintendo DS release than the PC version. Drawing letters to place on the grid is a simple task, though as with most handwriting tools, the results aren't always reliable. You can train Puzzler World to recognize your own brand of scraw, which helps, but ultimately I found it easier just to use the mouse to select letters and numbers manually.

Puzzler World doesn't try to do a lot, but what it does, it succeeds gloriously in. If you're in the mood for a whole lot of logic puzzles, you'd have a hard time going wrong with Puzzler World.

Windows:
Download the demo Get the full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.