Enchanted Gardens is an intriguing puzzle game by Yatec. Enchanted Gardens is Yatec's first offering. The company's goal is to build an entertainment industry in post-Katrina Louisiana. For their efforts to bring industry back to Louisiana, I would give this game an initial look. The quality of Enchanted Gardens game play is what keeps me coming back.

The game mechanic behind Enchanted Gardens is simple enough. You have a rectangular grid of varying sizes. There are garden-related pictures on each square within the grid. You are able to turn a block of four squares within the grid. Your objective is to get at least four matching pictures in a square to clear that square. Each time you clear a square, a little grass grows, turning the background greener. You need to clear a square at least two times to turn the background fully green.

Along with being able to control such options as sound and music, screen size and how the images function on the screen, you also get to choose how you want to play the game. There are three modes of play within Enchanted Gardens: Garden, Puzzle and Relax. I began with Garden Mode.

Garden mode starts you on a quest to restore the five Enchanted Gardens. The gardens you need to restore are Wildflower, Zen, Aquatic, Winter and Midnight - each with its own flowers, plants and small creatures. As you begin each new level, you're given a point goal for the level. Depending on how well you meet or exceed the point goal, you're awarded bronze, silver or gold for that level. Every five levels, you earn an upgrade for your little display garden. Depending on whether you averaged bronze, silver or gold on the preceding gardens, you might be given multiple options to choose from for your upgrade. In my Zen garden, for example, I earned a tower/statue, lanterns on the walls, tile on the floor and a fountain. A left click of the mouse lets me toggle between options if I achieved at least silver when I earned that option.

You might think it would be worth prolonging play to increase your points, but that can get a little tricky. As you move through the Garden levels, there is a cranky little garden gnome that sits in the attic window of the house next to the garden. The more moves you make without getting a match, the madder he gets, which might make him throw rocks into your garden. When you have a rock in a square, you can't rotate it. You can only clear the rock by making a match adjacent to the rock, or by a special power-up you can earn and use once per level (that clears all the rocks currently in the garden). At higher levels, you don't have to do anything to make the gnome throw the rocks - he just does it over time because he feels like it. (You'll be happy to know - at least I was - that the garden gnome is only part of the game in Garden mode.)

There are other power-ups you can earn in Garden mode, though not every power-up is available in every garden. The power-ups are color-coded. You fill a little glowing jar each time you make a match out of garden plants or creatures of the same color. When the jar is full, you get to use that power. Once the power has been used, the jar cracks and cannot be used again for that level. Along with the power-up to clear rocks, there's such options as making the grass grow faster (fully green in one match instead of multiple matches), increasing the bonus made from combinations and freezing time so you can set up multiple matches to happen in combination once time unfreezes.

I have really enjoyed the challenge of Puzzle mode. In this version of the game, you are given a pattern of images (flowers, creatures and/or plants), and you have to move the squares in your garden to recreate the pattern. When you finish, you're told whether you met the goal time for that level, as well as how many moves it took you to match the pattern. I can easily imagine repeating levels while trying to best my time and number of moves to completion.

Relax mode is, as it says, relaxing. There's no crabby, rock-throwing garden gnome, no scores, no clock to beat. You have pictures that might be from any of the five Enchanted Gardens gardens of varying sizes, and you just need to take your time and make the grass grow. You will get some statistics when you finish the level - how long it took you, how many moves it took and how many combination moves you achieved, but it's just there for your own reference.

I really like how the trophies are earned in Enchanted Gardens. The game keeps track of your statistics across all of the games. For example, when you grow 1,000 squares of grass, you get the Lawn Specialist award. It doesn't matter which level you grew that grass. There's a shadowed outline for each trophy not yet earned. You'll see a description and a riddle for the trophy, or you can click on it, and it will tell you flat out what you need to achieve that award. On the award screen, you'll also see how many total tiles you've cleared, how many squares of grass you've grown and the total points you've earned from all levels played so far.

The images on the puzzle tiles are very pretty. The little garden slug makes me smile (at least I think that's what he is). I like that each little image is animated when you bracket it for a move. The little ladybugs flare their wings. The flowers and bamboo stalks spin in place. The little fireflies even glow and flap their tiny wings. It's a true visual pleasure. The music is tranquil and a bit repetitive, but it does suit the mood of the game in general.

I've enjoyed the time I've spent in my virtual Enchanted Gardens. It's easy to jump in and play, whether you just have a few minutes or a bit more time to spend. I'm so happy when I get to play a game that lets me quit and save whenever I choose. Thank you, kind developers! The game is fun, and I'm happy to support Yatec in their efforts to cultivate new business for Louisiana. I give Enchanted Gardens a green thumbs up.