Personally I'm quite a big fan of cute. I like puppies, kittens and LocoRoco and when I first saw Gizmo from Gremlins as a child I nearly exploded.
But everyone's got to draw the line somewhere, and my line is drawn just before fairies. It's a struggle to think of any particular use for fairies. What exactly do they do? Sprinkle fairy dust to make people happy? It is possible my dislike of them is fuelled by the fact that entirely unsuitable and ageing celebrities like Cilla Black and Bonnie Langford always seem to be dressed as them on TV and Tinker Bell the fairy in Peter Pan was a bit arsey.
Anyway, I did put my contempt of Tinker Bell and her freakish little ilk to one side for this review. Something which I recommend anyone with a similar dislike of fairies does, because if you can get past its pixie dust and characters that go by names like Silvermist and float about a twee Pixie Hollow you can enjoy the puzzle side of the game, which is actually quite good.
The way it works is that each level is made up of a sort of grid scattered with a substance - in the first water-based levels that's water so we'll use that as the example (the subsequent levels still play in the same way).
Most of the squares are filled with a particular sized blob of water and you're able to make them bigger by pressing '5'. Once the blob has reached the size at which it explodes, it spits water in four directions on the grid, adding one splodge to each occupied square to increase that one in size.
The object is to clear the level of all water. However, it's nowhere near as easy at that sounds. You have a limited number of times you can wave your wand over one blob to make it bigger, plus you're up against the clock.
Surviving for long enough to clear the grid relies on scoring combos which, in turn, reward you with more turns. Combos are scored when bits of water keep rebounding around the grid - they do this when one hits a blob that explodes, in turn sending more water flying in four other directions. They're not immediately easy to spot, but once you get into the swing of scoring them then Tinker Bell's puzzles become pretty addictive.
Adding a little complexity to the levels are certain hazards which can only be removed by deploying different items that use up pixie dust. This pixie dust is collected by going to visit some, uh, pixie and playing a variation of the basic game again to earn it. This means that before tackling a new level (levels are made up of four puzzles) you normally need to stock up on dust. It's a bit of a repetitive game mechanic but not a terrible one.
Flying with your little fairy wings through all the puzzles in an area rewards you by unlocking the next ones, obviously which get progressively difficult.
It's a neat little game which, if you ignore the sugar coating - unless you're an eight year old girl of course, in which case you won't want to - is snapping at the heels of the better mobile puzzlers in terms of challenge and addictiveness. The music's annoying and the visuals aren't brilliant but the concept is a fine. The fairy dust might not make you happy, but the puzzles probably will.
Tinker Bell Puzzle
Cutesy Tinker Bell themed puzzle game that has you flying around a garden, helping other fairies by playing a series of puzzle levels. The puzzles aren't the most exciting or power-up packed, but they're suitably brain straining and addictive stuff that you'll be hooked for a while
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.