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: Out of Your Mind.

Mental health is no laughing matter, unless of course you're talking about Psychonauts, in that case laugh away, because that game dealt with the issue of mental issues and problems, while yet at the same time being a fun, joy filled game. Psychonauts, incidentally, was also one of my favorite games of that year, and it's sad that more people didn't play that wonderful gem. But part of the reason I enjoyed that game so much was because of the mental moments it focused on, so imagine my surprise when the Casual Game of the Week turned out to be Out of Your Mind (OOYM from here on).

In OOYM, you play as a new employee at the Blissful Brain Holistic Luxury Spa. And no, don't go in expecting mud baths, Swedish massages, and mineral oil washes, because at this spa you come here to have one thing and only one thing done to you – brain flossing. Yep, brain flossing. Is the worry of your day getting you down? Are those kids bugging the heck out of you and you need a break? Job getting too much and you need a cool down and restart? The issue could be Nega-Ticks, little evil, self deprecating thoughts that get in your mind and stay lodged in there, affecting your mental health. As the newest employee, it will be your job to use the mental floss to clean out the gunk in the patrons' head, clearing their mind and removing the Nega-Ticks in the process.

In the game, you'll be presented with a really colorful game level representing the brain of the person you are flossing. Inside this brain, you'll see these cruddy brown specs littering the place, which represent the gunk you need to clean away. You'll also see colored pots, which contain your floss. Now OOYM features a completely new gameplay mechanic, so nothing will come easy right away, but it doesn't take long for that "oooh" moment to come when the idea clicks with you. In order to clean the gun away, you must essentially lasso it, which means drawing a line of floss from the pot to the area, drawing the line around it, and then drawing the line over the line so you make a loop around the gunk. However, just making a loop won't clear gunk away, because you need a Nega-Tick attached to the floss or else you can't remove gunk. Controls are simple, with a left click used to activate the floss you want to use, and drawing the line with your mouse.

However, not all Nega-Ticks can be got with one type of floss, as there are different colored flosses and different colored Nega-Ticks, so if you have a blue Nega-Tick, only blue floss will be able to grab it. Yellow is to yellow. Green is to Green. I think you know how to match colors. So what's hard about that you're asking yourself? What's stopping you from grabbing one Nega-Tick, encircling the whole board, and then the game is over? Well, you can't have anything in your loop but gunk, that's what's stopping you. Though you can have clear, first appearing Nega-Ticks in your loop, fully formed ones are a big no in this game's book. So when making your loops, be mindful there is nothing in there. You complete a level once all the gunk is first removed, and then all Nega-Ticks are gone too.

But don't go thinking it's all that easy, because that is just the start of it. You'll soon find yourself with more and more different colored Nega-Ticks, which will require their own floss. You'll find levels with "mental blocks" in your way, that you can't loop around either, so you'll have to steer clear of them and work around them. Perhaps the biggest nuisance in your quest to clearing the brains, is that should a Nega-Tick exist for too long, it will explode, coloring the area in its color. Unlike the regular gunk that can be got with any floss, if a yellow Nega-Tick explodes, you'll have to use yellow floss to swoop around it, looping it and clearing it from play. Your game ends if you run out of time before the whole brain is cleaned. Thankfully, powerups come in the way of good Ticks, which grant abilities like shrinking down Nega-Ticks, freezing them in place, and other such goodies to help make your mental flossing life somewhat easier.

Outside of the 70+ levels of the story mode, the only other mode is an Arcade one that has you seeing how long you can continuously keep flossing one mind (you can only use the brains of patrons you unlocked during the story mode). Instead of a built in timer, instead this mode relies on the ever-increasing gunk to be the timer, as a meter slowly builds up as more and more gunk finds its way on the level. Once the gunk fills up the brain, your time is record for posterity's sake.

In terms of both graphics and sound work, OOYM has an absolutely creative style, which goes way beyond realism, and reaches a beauty in its simplistic yet highly endearing and cartoony charm. The Nega-Ticks, for example, are supposed to be these evil, monstrous things, but they are so cute you can't but smile at them, from when they are scurrying about a level to their X for eyes when you've killed them by grabbing them with your floss. The game is also really bright and cheerful, exploding off the screen in its vibrantness like some fantastical creation in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. The sound work is also nice as well, and though the music itself isn't terribly much (though still nice and pleasant), the sound effects is what really won me over, as the cleaning of gunk, the exploding of Nega-Ticks, and the poking of them with floss just produces the cutest sounds possible.

For all its beauty and charm and new gameplay, it pains me to rate it with a three out of five rating, but if you look at what that score means in our database, you'll see why it had to get a Three Star Rating. It isn't that the game is bad, far from it, it's just that the new puzzle gameplay won't be for everyone. However, the thing that ultimately makes me take off points is the lack of modes to keep your gameplay time at a max. Having over 70 story missions will keep you occupied a while, but the Arcade mode features a time attack situation, which isn't my favorite mode in puzzle games. Had there been some extra modes, the rating would've been bumped up. However, don't let the score dissuade you from the game. The game has such a charm that it is definitely deserving of your time. If on the fence, at least download the trial and let the game get lodged in your brain cavities for a while.

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