Cogs, from Lazy 8 Studios, just won a slew of Indie Game Challenge awards and pulled in a fair amount of green for its efforts. I have to admit it certainly is a pretty cool game. The puzzles are interesting, challenging and creative. The controls aren’t the best and at times when I want one piece to move in one direction another nearby piece will.

But the control problems aside it’s still entertaining. The game takes the old Chinese sliding puzzle mechanic and instead of just numbers or pictures you have puzzles that you have to solve. Many of them are lining up cogs to transfer power from place to place or connecting pipes to get steam where it needs to go. But it’s not just one single puzzle. They come in cubes, two-sided puzzles and more. Some puzzles have goals - make the chimes ring, stop the chimes from ringing, etc.

The graphics have a sort of steampunk feel to them due to the wood, gears and pipes and the overall color scheme. They’re certainly not astounding, but they are perfect for the game.

The thing I don’t like is that you only have about 10 puzzles. Then you have to buy more. You can play them all in two modes Inventor and Challenge. Inventor is simply solving the puzzle and being awarded on time, number of moves and completion. In Challenge mode you can play each of the 10 puzzles either in Time or Moves versions. In Time you have only 30 seconds to finish each puzzle. In Moves you have a limited number of them to complete the puzzle.

These modes are seriously problematic at times due to the poor controls. I swear these games are made to be played with a stylus or the fingers of a 10-year-old. I do not have immense hands and so if I have problems, many others will as well.

Overall, the intricacy and originality of the puzzles win out. Unfortunately there are only 10, though you can buy more if you want. Also the control scheme is lacking. I would opt for the PC version of the iPhone one. The controls have to be better and that would probably score around a 9 out of 10. Available from GamersGate.com.

Further Screens: