In this hectic world we live in, many times work and appointments must come before the fun and joys in our lives, including that of getting to play videogames whenever we want. Gone are the days when we could fire up a game of our choice and spend hours toiling away – now we seem to game in stolen moments here and there. With that in mind, perhaps it is no wonder that casual games have become such a popular gaming choice (especially with women who make up the vast majority of casual game players), as casual games allow us to either jump in and get those quick fixes of gaming bliss or either play them for as long as we want when we do have the time. In honor of the casual game, we'll be bringing you a new Casual Game of the Week every Monday to help you find that fix you might be needing in your life, and this week we have: Magic Match Adventures

Typically, if you start a game out with cute little creatures singing a song about "Welcome to Imp World," I'm most likely going to puke from the sheer amount of sugary cuteness that's on display. As it turns out though, however, such a beginning to Magic Match Adventures doesn't turn us off, but rather makes us appreciate the charm of the game even more. Like the song says, you find yourself as a magician/potion master in the land of Imp World, who finds out that there is some evil afoot and causing problems for all of the little imps. For no reason boats are being destroyed, imps are turning into totems, and rain clouds go out of their way to find one spot to mess up and that one spot only. As the growing magician that you are, you'll need to adventure into the Magic Realm to gather potions you'll need to power a spell to help fix the problems of the imps and dispel the evil from their world. Surprisingly, Magic Match Adventures has a nice little story that is always there right before the gameplay, and though it's not an epic story, you do feel sorry for the little imps being caused problems, and when you fix their world and get their thanks, it's very much like the satisfaction you get from the "god genre" of games like Black and White.

The basic fundamentals behind Magic Match Adventures still borrows from the "match three" genre, and while some things are the same (pieces frozen temporarily or locked pieces you have to destroy first) there are some differences. When you go into the Magic Realm, you are presented with a board positioned like a diamond rather than a square like you'd usually find; you wouldn't think slightly shifting a board would be a big deal, but it actually makes you think a little harder about how to find matches, and overall makes the game much more difficult from the get-go than other games cut from the same fabric. As pieces line up to form at least touching groups of three, you'll click on one and then drag your mouse over all the existing touching pieces until you are satisfied, and then you'll release to add those pieces to your pile. You start each visit to the Magic Realm with a select amount of each piece you need to gather – like 25 fish – and you'll need to gather all of the required items before time is over to be able to move on. As you get the required items for each item group, you'll start to create potion pieces, which when combined with any two-like items, will let you basically use the potion, helping to create the magic needed to fix the problems plaguing Imp World; of course not every single visit to the Magic Realm will fix a problem, so you might have to go twice or more to get the required magic needed.

Changing up the formula, the game presents you with a series of spells, which cost mana (you get from making matches) that you can unleash whenever you want just as long as you have enough mana to cover the cost. For example, there are spells to randomly shuffle everything on the board, and there are spells that let you move one piece and exchange it for another one on the board. Besides these spells, there's also a group of powerups that allow you to perform other spells and abilities, like letting you cast a fireball that melts all the frozen pieces, or a blast of light that destroys the stationary boxes in the game.

Taking a page from the recent Puzzle Quest smash-hit, you'll also have levels that have you dueling fellow wizards, with you both taking turns making matches on the same board, trying to complete your list of needed items before the other one, so that you can win the level and destroy their evil influence. The duels are pretty fun and also a nice challenge to breakup the already challenging gameplay; yes, the basics are the same, but yet there is enough different to make you appreciate the quick diversion.

Graphically the game is charming, featuring fully animated imps moving about the world, getting into problems, and with you needing to fix them. The board of the Magic Realm – where the bulk of the gameplay takes place – is nice, but the graphics could've been much better in this part, as the pieces under the ice are oftentimes too hard to figure out, so you aren't always sure just what item is there. In terms of audio the game is great, as it starts out with an admittedly cheesy song (but performed really admirably), and from there you'll run across more voice acting work, a pleasing melody that quickly speeds up and becomes more worrisome as your time counts down, and the sound of making matches and hearing pieces shuffle around all sound wonderful.

Magic Match Adventures suffers from a horribly generic name, and so going into the game we didn't think we'd find too much to like, but luckily for us we found a wonderful little game that spins a quaint little world mixed with gameplay that is both basic and yet complex at the same time, making sure that it's challenging enough to keep players playing all the way to the very end.

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