Fresco Style

Taco Bell has a new "fresco style" option where you can get anything on their menu prepared in a much healthier (or should I say "less deadly") way, with fresh salsa instead of cheese and other oily products. That's what I thought of when I read the title of this product and I laughed a lot. However, when I played, I saw no Mexican food in sight.

In Fresco wizard, you must break the evil sorcerer's spell and return everything in the kingdom back to the way it was. You did this by fitting oddly shaped gems into different patterns. That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, but it doesn't have to; it's magic!

Each play area presents you with a different shape, sometimes even multiple shapes. They are divided into sections that must be filled with gems that will fall from the left side of the screen. To place a gem in a section, simply left-click to grab and once you've positioned it, click again to place it. You might have to rotate the piece to get it in there just right. To spin it, simply right-click while you have it.

Waste Not, Want Not

I'm not sure what that saying means, but it seemed appropriate. One of the biggest pitfalls in this game is letting the pieces stack up too high. You must use them faster than they fall if you are going to survive the round and make it to the next one. However, once you start filling up those sections, you might not have room for certain shapes. If this is the case, you have two options.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, there is a circular object. You can think of this as a sort of magical trash-bin, where you can dispose of unwanted pieces. However, you can only throw away one gem at a time, and you must wait a while in between each one. What this means is that you can't always depend on this to get you out of a tight jam. The pieces fall faster than this thing can get rid of them.

This brings me to option number two, which is actually what sets this game apart from the rest, in my opinion. In all the games that I've played that used this type of gameplay method, once you set a piece down, it's there for good. However, here, that's not the case. You're free to pick up and move pieces at any time, for the entire duration of the level. It's important to note, though, that once you pick a piece up off of the puzzle, you can't set it back in the stack. You either have to set it back into the puzzle or throw it away.

While this may not seem like a major change, it really effects the gameplay on a deep level. You'll constantly be swapping shapes in and out, making room for new ones and trying to make rapid-fire decisions.

The Best of its Kind

While this might not feature a gameplay system that is entirely unique, it's the finest example I've played. The ability to constantly edit the puzzle makes for a fun game, as you struggle to not be indecisive. If you're looking for a challenging way to kill time, this is it.