I like popping bubble wrap. Perhaps that is why I love a good point and click puzzle pieces matching game that requires no more technical skill than clicking the left mouse button and you can easily get into and out of whenever you have some downtime or want to procrastinate. And though Glyph doesn't exactly do anything terribly original, it does take the best elements from many of the puzzle games out there, throws in some special powers, and wraps it all up in a nicely designed package.

There are two main modes in Glyph, which are listed as the Quest mode and Action mode. The Quest mode is perhaps where there is the most depth and gameplay to be had out of the two. The Quest mode has a genuine story and quest attached to the puzzle elements, which details you discovering and researching these glyphs in order to restore the natural balance of the floating lands that splintered into different factions, such as Water, Earth, Fire, etc. The story isn't too involving, as you only get a few lines of story after every so many boards, but it is nice that a company tried to actually incorporate a story into their game. Meanwhile, the Action mode is pure click, click, click reflex gameplay with no story. The interesting thing is that each gameplay mode has a different play style to it with only the central "match three or more of the same color" and specials being the same.

In Quest mode, you are given a board laid out in various designs, with different colored stones placed in each of the squares making up the design. Underneath each stone is a different colored backing piece, which you slowly dig through by making matching colors on top of the squares. The idea is to dig down through these squares by matching on top of them until you can find the hidden Glyph, which is a giant drawing that takes up a good portion of the design template level. Some of the backing pieces you can remove with one match on top of them, but often times you have to match groupings two, three, or more on top of them to finally get through all the levels. You also don't need to fully reveal the bottom of every square, but rather just the ones needed to fully reveal the Glyph. So, if you've found a segment of the Glyph picture, it's best to try and work from there outwards until it's fully revealed since you now know it is in that area and you don't need to randomly look everywhere now.

Quest mode starts off easy, but it has obstacles to keep you from easily moving forward. Some levels will allow you to only match certain colors, like only green, so if you make something like a blue matching over a square, it won't register it. You'll also have blocks that can't be taken off the board by grouping them into pairs and pieces that like to do things like spread like a virus after so much time has been spent (they change the pieces they are touching to their same color). You've also got a timer, where if you don't keep clicking at a relatively brisk pace, you'll run out of time, lose a life, and have to start over.

However, along the way you'll have automatic powerups that pop into your play hand, with these being things like row eliminations, level scramblers, bombs, color changers, etc. Each powerup comes at level one, which will only affect a single row or column or a small area at the point where you clicked. However, if you leave it alone and don't play it right away, but instead keep playing and matching like normal, the power of the powerup will slowly rise to a medium level two and ultimately to a high level three. The high level three powerups are the best, as they change the whole board instead of only small sections.

You'll also have bonus levels every so often, where you'll be presented the Glyph pieces you've discovered, and you'll have to click on them in the order they sing and hum, basically playing like a game of Simon Says. In total, there are 255 levels to the Quest mode, so you'll have a good bit to keep you busy and left clicking those mouse buttons.

The Action mode of the Glyph plays like your classic game of Collapse, where the colored pieces are constantly moving towards the top of the screen as new pieces appear at the bottom to push them up. The goal of the game is to click the pieces in their at least groups of three so that they don't push any piece above the top of the screen to cost you a life. However, even Action mode isn't your typical game as you'll have access to the same powerups in this mode as you did in Quest, plus it will switch things up on you occasionally, dropping pieces from the sky instead of pushing them up from the bottom.

The game is also really relaxing and fun, mostly thanks to the pleasant soothing background music and sound effects that trigger when you match pieces or use a powerup. The game has a lovely ethereal quality to it as well, as the colors are so bright and cheerful, radiating brilliant blues and greens just to name a few, that you can't help but feel yourself relax and reach some level of inner peace. It really is a soothing game, even when you are about to lose a life cause that piece is one row from reaching the top.

The only problem I had with the game is that there was a bit of lag between the pointer on my screen and my mouse movements. Now, it isn't a huge deal considering there isn't much twitch shooting gameplay-esque needs about the game, but it can be a bit annoying when you want to move quicker than the game is letting you. Not a huge problem, and certainly one that shouldn't keep you from buying the game, but it is an issue I had with the game nonetheless.

In the end, though it isn't a revolutionary experience that will define puzzle games for generations like Tetris did, it is still a very solid, beautiful, relaxing, and most importantly fun puzzle game for all the puzzle fans out there. So sit back, stretch out that clicking finger, and get ready for some color matching.

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