Linking your new flapping friends to two appropriately shaded gems sends them to safety, so you're forced to find the fastest means of freeing them before a spider gobbles 'em up at the top. Special butterfly gems ascend the board with each turn. Butterflies mode, for instance, is a terrific test of perception. The unlockable gameplay types, earned simply by dabbling in the already available modes, each bring a bit of innovation to the table. The simplicity of Bejeweled gives PopCap room for creative flexibility, and the developer is increasingly clever when it comes to reinvigorating the familiar. Bejeweled 3 does this by expanding on and adding to the formula in unexpected ways. Yet each new release still manages to rekindle my compulsive desire to destroy shiny shapes. The core gameplay - aligning three or more like-colored crystals into rows or columns - hasn't changed in years.

This particular obsession isn't anything new, of course. Suddenly, it's hours beyond bedtime, and when I hit the hay, gems start dropping in my dreams. What starts as a stress-free flirtation fast becomes an unwavering, failure-free fixation. Obliterating sparkling jewels here offers the same cathartic release of classic Bejeweled with the added bonus of impunity. Misleading though its title may be, the Zen mode in Bejeweled 3 embodies everything I adore about the match-three puzzle genre. There is something decidedly un-Zen about the sounds of pirate-themed melodies and exploding gems.

Bejeweled 3 ps3