Qwirks

Alexey Pajitnov, the father of Tetris, contributed to this rehash of that classic puzzle game. Instead of Tetris' plain square blocks, you spin, drop, and match up multicolored critters — basically gumdrops with eyes — in order to clear the playing field. Qwirks is certainly fun, but there's no escaping that been-there, done-that feel. Software makers have tried before to beat the elegance and addictive gameplay of Tetris, but in the end, it's a losing battle. B-