We loved Triazzle 3.0 [iTunes Link] when it came out in July, but with winter nearly upon us it's time to dust off the sleigh bells and dreidels because Triazzle Holiday [iTunes Link] is here in a new seasonally-inspired version. This slightly cut-down version of the US$2.99 app sells for US$0.99, and runs on any iPhone or iPod touch running OS 2.2.1 or higher.

Triazzle is a puzzle game where you are given a sectioned triangle board and 9 (down from 16 in the full app) smaller triangle pieces that fit in the larger triangle like a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces are moved to the board and rotated to get the proper orientation, when all nine are in place, you have won. The rub is that many pieces can look maddeningly similar and there is only correct solution to each puzzle. So even if it looks right, you can be wrong. When you are right, you are rewarded with an animation and the match counter increments.

This version of Triazzle is chock-full of holiday lights, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Dreidels, Nutcrackers, and a litany of other things to make you think of the holidays. The game has 4 difficulty levels ranging from one for kids to level 3, which is really quite difficult. Animated hints are available along with an option invoking the Triazzle Tiki Gods to solve the puzzle for you.

What sets Triazzle Holiday apart from just about anything else is its craftsmanship. Every screen is more gorgeous than the next, and the level of detail of the graphics can leave you breathless. If the visuals get too complex you can choose to display simpler backgrounds to make things easier to see. You can also adjust whether or not snow will fall, and you can set the volume level of music, ambient sounds, and game sounds.

Music is a large part of the game. Right after the splash screen you are advised to use headphones. Drag them out of the closet for this one -- it's worth it. The music is wonderfully recorded and reproduced using such favorites as Jingle Bells and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from The Nutcracker Suite. In addition there is a lot of original music, including a spirited Klezmer number backing up a game full of Dreidels.

Triazzle Holiday will only be available through the holiday season, so get your copy now, put on your headphones, and immerse yourself in this impressive game.

Triazzle 3.0 is one of the most uniquely beautifully and ultimately playable games I have yet to see on the iPhone. Truthfully, I am nothing more than a casual gamer and find most games too complex or time consuming, but I was sucked in immediately. it's a bit like chess in that it's very easy to learn, but mastering it? Well, that's something else again.

Triazzle, in one form or another, has been around since 1991 (when it appeared as a paper cut-out game). Later it was developed as software and sold by Berkeley Systems and then Activision. Like a fine wine, the game has aged well and the iPhone 3.0 version proves to be the best version yet

The game presents you with a large triangle board and either 9 or 16 smaller triangular pieces with repeating graphical images that fit onto the larger triangle. Each piece can be rotated and moved onto the board. When all the small triangles are in the right places, you win. Sounds easy, right? Well it isn't.

There is only one possible solution and since many of the pieces look amazingly similar, you are bound to come up with what looks like a perfect solution, but isn't quite right. It takes strategy and a good sense of spatial relationships to get things just so. You are also helped a bit by little insects that become animated when you get a piece in the right position.

Unfortunately, I missed Eliss the first time around, but I won't make the same mistake this time. It's a game designed by a French and Portugese graphic designer named Steph Thirion, and it's sort of an abstract multitouch puzzler -- you can pull and push together differently colored planets all floating around in a sort of space-like environment, with some groovy synth sound effects and music cuts to back up the gameplay. The game got nominated for an IGF award, and for anyone interested in fun puzzlers (not to mention the possibilities of multitouch in gaming), it's a must-see.

I say "the first time around," because it's been on the App Store for a while now, but the game just got updated to version 1.1, and the main tweak is in the difficulty -- there are now 25 levels instead of 20, and the curve has been adjusted to make moving through the stages a little smoother. And the game got a price drop, too -- you can pick it up for a mere $3.00. As I said, definitely worth it to get a little multitouch practice in for what might be the future of gaming.

Danielle Cassley took one of the strangest paths you might find to game designer -- just out of a computer science degree at Berkeley, she was trying to get a job as a babysitter when she met Peter Relan of the YouWeb Incubator. And rather than have her take care of his kids, he decided instead to put her in an idea farm and see what happened.

Aurora Feint was what happened -- she and Jason Citron, full of ideas, created a game in just ten weeks that took over the App Store out of nowhere in its infancy. The game originally released for free, and while it promised to be an MMO, it started out as a puzzle/RPG game -- people didn't quite understand what it was, but they liked it anyway.

Almost a year later, Aurora Feint has spawned four different versions and even a social platform, and Danielle and Jason are still full of ideas. In this exclusive interview with TUAW, she talks about how Aurora Feint came to be, what she thinks of the App Store so far (and if developers will ever be able to charge the prices they want), and what's next for the Aurora Feint series (they've just released a new version of The Arena called Daemons) and the iPhone platform. Click the link below to read on.

Jason Rohrer gained some nice accolades among the indie gaming scene for his game, Passage, which took the player through a whole pixelated lifetime in just a few minutes in a very powerful and artistic way. Lately, he's turned his attention to the iPhone -- he released Passage on the platform (though it doesn't work quite so well -- you should probably stick to the free desktop version for the full effect), and has now created another iPhone game that's not quite as meaningfully reflective, but is definitely lots of fun.

Primrose is the new title -- it's due out on the App Store any minute now (and will be released for desktops as well), but Rohrer gave TUAW a pre-release look at the game. You can browse through a few screenshots in the gallery below, and our impressions (it's good) are in the second half of the post.

As we know from the iPhone television commercials, if there's something you need to do, there's an app for that. And so apparently, if the thing you want to do is solve a Rubik's Cube, then yes, there is an app for that. CubeCheater will help you quickly solve a Rubik's Cube -- all you do is punch in the colors on your cube right now, and then you get directions, complete with rotating graphics, on what steps to take to solve the cube.

It's not built from scratch -- the app uses an algorithm already developed for solving the Cube -- but it does take advantage of a surprising amount of the iPhone's features. You can draw the colors on the virtual cube yourself, or even take a picture of your cube's sides and the app will recognize where the colors are. The latest update adds support for non-standard cubes, so if the colors aren't quite the same on your cube as on the screen, you can change things around.

Impressive, even if it is a little limited in practicality. It's in the App Store right now for 99 cents. Obviously, the point of a Rubik's Cube is solving it yourself. And if you really want to cheat, you don't need an iPhone. Just do what I do: take the little stickers off and replace them in the right places.

[via Cult of Mac]

Chop Sushi is a brand new game from our friends at THQ in the App Store that combines a love of the Japanese raw fish dish with an interesting twist on the kind of gem-matching battle gameplay that Puzzle Quest made famous (and addictive) a few years ago. It's still a matching game, except you're matching wasabi and rolls instead of gems and skulls, and instead of choosing one gem to switch another, you choose a piece and then swipe it to the end of a row or column, making a match anywhere on the board (as the rest of the pieces fill in for the one you moved). It's hard to explain, but easy to pick up, and tough to master -- the different movements make this one worth a look even if you've played Puzzle Quest or any of its spiritual successors 'till exhaustion.

I've tried out two different "path" games this past week from the App Store. Both Chuck the Ball and Super Fruitfall have you navigating paths on the iPhone, both using the touchscreen a little differently to send items you don't directly control around the screen.

Super Fruitfall is made by a developer called Universomo and published by our friends at THQ Wireless. It's a relatively simple game -- there is some fruit sitting on a rotateable field, and your job is to match the fruit up with others of its type. It's amusing, in the way the old Labyrinth games were, but it's frustrating in the same way, too.

Extra frustration enters the scene when too-sensitive controls cause you to flip the screen an extra turn, losing any patterns you had going. A "juice mode" makes the game a little more interesting by keeping the fruit flowing as you match it out, but at $3, the game's a little too boring, unless you really love tilt puzzles. Personally, my outcome at the end of each level was brought about just as much by my randomly flipping the board around as it was any strategy I tried.

Chuck the Ball is a little more promising.

Tatomic came to my attention the other day, and I finally gave it a shot this afternoon -- it's terrific. They've done what all game companies should do (and what Apple really needs to support on the actual App Store) and provided a free version [iTunes] to test out, and I can't really recommend it any more highly. It's a falling block game basically, very much like Lumines (which I really enjoy on Xbox Live) -- little spinning atom blocks drop in pairs, and you've got to match them up in certain numbers to clear them off the board. Pretty addictive gameplay, too -- the fact that you've only got two blocks dropping makes it simple, unless things start to pile up, and then you've really got to start thinking what goes where.

Controls are also done pretty well, but take a little getting used to (you basically touch corners of the screen to move, drop or turn the little atoms you're matching), but once you figure them out, you'll start dropping blocks like a maniac. If you finish up the first ten levels and still want more, there's a $4.99 version with three modes and thirty levels total. Excellent puzzler gameplay. I still would like to see a deeper game on the App Store, but for cheap puzzle thrills, Tatomic delivers.

Puzzllotto has been about as hidden as the lemurs you can see in the screenshot over there, for some reason -- the concept isn't real easy to grasp, and if you just stumbled across the "game" in the App Store, odds are that you'd think you had $5 stolen from you. But there is a weird story hidden here, both literally and figuratively. David Lanham and Mike Lee contributed to the Puzzllotto, which features unusual game play -- there's just a picture of a forest, and a few eyes that you can touch to make lemurs and other creatures pop out. I would tell you more, but I haven't actually figured it out yet -- there's a "fosa" that will scare away any lemurs or butterflies you've summoned, and I know that the butterflies are basically a progress meter, but other than that I have no idea.

But Puzzllotto isn't just that perplexing app -- it's been dubbed "fundware" by Lee, and 10% of the proceeds from the game will go to the Madagascar Fauna Group to support the habitats of lemurs, fosas, and butterflies. And it's actually a puzzle to be solved, with a cash prize -- if you can be the first to figure out the "puzzle" behind Puzzllotto, United Lemur will give you a cash prize out of their prize pool, currently at $5000, and growing every day for 31 days. If no one claims the prize at the end of the 30 days, all the money will go to charity, project over. You can follow updates on their Twitter -- it sounds like no one's claimed any prizes yet, which is no surprise -- if there are any clues in the app, they're very, very hard to find. United Lemur claims that there is a game in there (and that it is worth the $5 entry fee), but so far, all players have found is a few screens of the weird lemur puzzle.

But it is a different kind of game -- a cash prize handed out by a flabbergastingly tough puzzle disguised as an App Store game, all designed to benefit a charity. Lee says on his blog that they wanted to make a game where players couldn't cheat by telling each other the answer, but maybe they didn't realize that part of the fun of Myst is sharing the strategy with other players. And if you don't want to shell out the $5 on Lee's word, it might be fun to just wait until the solution gets posted somewhere anyway. Have you solved any part of Puzzllotto yet?

An employee of Cyan Worlds (proprietors of the legendary Myst series of games) has announced that they will be porting the original Myst to the iPhone. Apparently it's an "outside-funded" project -- though who might be funding it isn't yet clear -- and is apparently proving to be an "interesting and fun" project with a small team of just three people. No word yet on how it might work (or work differently) from the original, but the classic puzzle/exploration of Myst is good gaming no matter what platform you're playing it on.

Starting with the NES emulator, the iPhone was following the evolution of gaming pretty well -- at least until the App Store started mixing things up a bit. After Myst, I think we're right around Wolfenstein and Doom at this point -- those were available jailbroken, but it's about time we get an FPS officially as well. Carmack, you interested?

[via TouchArcade, which is strangely down as of this writing]

Our sister site Joystiq reports that Puzzle Quest, the handheld puzzle-slash-RPG sensation, has been rated by the ESRB for a Mac release. The news isn't that surprising, as Puzzle Quest has already been slated to appear on almost every platform but the Mac (although PS3 hasn't received the love either). It is great news, as Puzzle Quest is supposed to be a terrific game, and it is exactly the kind of casual game that belongs in OS X.

An ESRB rating isn't exactly official confirmation, but it does usually mean that the game is playable, so chances are we'll see the game released sooner rather than later (if I had to guess, I'd say by this holiday season, but don't quote me on that). If you happen to have a PC box around, there's a demo available right now, but from all reports, if you like puzzlers and/or RPG games, this game is good enough to pick up sight unseen.

Now, I'm not a big puzzler myself, but I do know lots of people out there enjoy the thrill of completing a tough crossword puzzle. Red Sweater Software has just announced the release of Black Ink 1.0 (formerly MacXword, Red Sweater Software has been on an acquisition tear as of late). Black Ink downloads puzzles from a number of free sources (including the NY Times). It allows you to print out puzzles for solving on the go, and it also includes a timer so you can brush up on your competitive crossword skills.

Black Ink costs $24.95 and there is a 30 day demo available. Users of MacXword can upgrade for $9.95 (with a valid serial number).

I should start this off by admitting that I am not very good at puzzle games. They often frighten and confuse me. Add that to the fact that I am not all that bright (as evidenced by my work on TUAW) and things do not look good for me and puzzles. I'll tell you what does look good though (see what I did there?): Frenzic.

Frenzic is the new puzzle game from the good people of the Iconfactory and ARTIS Software. I can't really explain how it works, though obviously it involves colored wedges and some power ups (what good game doesn't have power ups?). You have to play it to get a feel for the game, luckily there is a free demo.

Frenzic also has an online component allowing you to compete against other players, and land yourself high atop of the leaderboards. There are a few different ways to buy Frenzic:

• $14.95 gets you unlimited local gameplay and 6 months of free online Frenzic play (you can renew your online subscription for $9.95 a year)
  
• $24.95 gets you unlimited local and online gameplay forever (and you get to support cool software)
  

Sharp-eyed TUAW reader GPessia spotted a curious puzzle piece on the Midnight Apps ChaChing page. The icon links to a PDF file, which contains the puzzle piece shown here.

The name of the PDF file is %72%65%61%6C%6D%61%63%73%6F%66%74%77%61%72%65.pdf, which translates to realmacsoftware in Hex Ascii. I popped over to http://www.realmacsoftware.com, the makers of RapidWeaver, but did not find another puzzle piece.

Are we dealing with another Hubert situation? What's the deal with the puzzle? Let us know in the comments if you have any insights.

False alarm TUAWers. It looks like this was part of a recent MacHeist puzzle. Thanks to Lucas Cantor for the clarification.