Poker Smash

You might roll your eyes at another puzzle game filled with yet another infinite supply of tiles that creeps inexorably toward a line of death. But despite its attractive price tag and some familiar trappings, Poker Smash is anything but a cheap knockoff. In fact, it’s one of the best action brain-busters in ages.

Every match you make is accompanied by a fireworks display and a flying-chip reward for your bankroll.

Rectangular tiles bear the rank and suit of playing cards, and they slide into view five at a time. The left thumbstick moves the selection cursor across the 11 slick skins, and the right thumbstick nudges the current tile left or right. In this simple and intuitive way you can arrange cards into seven kinds of matches, from three-of-a- kinds to full houses, flushes, and straights.

At first blush, the whole affair seems overly familiar and laden with the temptation to shuffl e tiles into their simplest vanishing confi guration, but the true pleasure of Poker Smash lies in pursuing more dangerous and rewarding combinations. The field has only 10 rows, so nailing a seven-card flush and then frantically disassembling the tower of tiles before it can end your game is addictive, and fi nding effective strategies requires frequent and surprisingly rewarding lateral thinking. (Fifty-five puzzle levels provide the perfect cerebral training ground for the latter.) The options to speed up the scrolling pace, to slow down time, and to drop bombs on the board are just icing on an inspired gameplay cake.

Strangely, only local multiplayer matches will show you your opponent's board.

Local split-screen contests edge out Xbox Live multiplayer for satisfaction value, since you can’t actually see your opponents’ boards online, but that and the occasionally dodgy music selections are about the only complaints we can make. Unless you absolutely loathe poker or puzzlers, buy this game.