Nintaii: A Puzzle Game for Blackberry

Start playing with blocks again like you did as a child. Rather, just one block. Nintaii involves one rectangle block that you can roll or flip around a maze. According to Mobigloo, the genius behind the game, Nintaii is a Japanese word for patience, perserverance, or endurance. These terms describe exactly how you should feel when you play the game.

It starts tough while you wrestle with your brain to figure out how to move the block around a maze to reach the home plate -- a square hole. The hole sounds easy, but it isn't because you must land RIGHT on it upright so the block falls through.

Later levels contain switches that look gear-shaped, barriers, and arrows. When the block presses the switch, a barrier or two open or close. Opened barriers won't let the block get by. Mazes change shape requiring precise movements to reach the hole.

As you advance and get the hang of it, the movements make better sense. Soon you find you're king of the block, that is, until you encounter more obstacles such as more switches and arrows. You may feel frustrated in the beginning, but the game turns addicting as soon as you and the block become one.

• 100 stages that increase difficulty.
• Only needs trackball to play and one hand.
• View the entire scene by pressing ALT+trackball. Wish they picked an easier way to do it -- requires both hands.
• Free trial available: Something that's rare for BlackBerry apps.
• Hall of Fame: Can't test this since the game crashes at Stage 98.
• Customized Theme: You can switch between Retro and Modern. That's it.
• Sound Effects: You can turn sound on / off when loading the game (no embarrassing moments in the library or other quiet places).

At Stage 98 -- only two away from 100 -- the game crashes. Mobigloo tech support tries to help, but the problem remains. The company earns credit for making up for the unsolved bug. Nonetheless, 97 Stages make it worth playing. Also, there's no way to start over at Stage 1. Selecting "New Game" from the menu doesn't create a new game. It returns to the current game.

It makes no sense because there's a "Resume Game" option, but it's always grayed out when you enter the game. It only shows up when you're in the middle of the game and go back to the menu. Pushing "New Game" and "Resume Game" have the same result.

If you get stuck around Level 30-something or 50-something (can't recall exactly, but one of those), here's a hint: play with the switches.

It would be great to see more stages come out for the game (without bugs, of course) as there's no current substitute for Nintaii. Nothing out there grips, addicts, challenges, or takes little work in using the BlackBerry's trackball.