Even though mass market-friendly, instantly comprehensible "casual" games have extended the hobby's appeal beyond the usual audiences, most sport far less polish than traditional console outings. Not so for Tower Bloxx, a popular mobile and Flash-based web game that's now making the jump to standalone desktop diversion, courtesy of Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins's newest venture, Digital Chocolate. Incredibly bright, sunny and simple to learn, the action-intensive brainteaser's cheerful cartoon visuals and intuitive interface nonetheless belie a surprisingly deep and engaging puzzler that takes minutes to learn, but weeks to fully master.

The meat of the title is in story mode, which casts you as a well-known builder who must bail out ailing town Sycamore Vale. (Engaging instant action, timed challenge and split-screen multiplayer options are also available, once they are unlocked by progressing through the solo campaign.) Play itself is divided into two equally compelling phases. First comes urban planning, or deciding where to place luxury, office, residential and commercial structures on city districts divided into limited grids of squares, with several placement constraints tying your hands. Next, there's actual construction, where you simply time mouse clicks to make a teetering crane release its load, creating wobbling stacks of floors (which eventually become towering edifices) that newcomers will flock to inhabit.

Aim is everything, with well-placed drops yielding tenant-boosting combos, additional playing pieces and access to new districts. The catch is that you must meet specific population prerequisites to advance, which requires thinking multiple steps ahead, as you'll constantly need to demolish and rearrange structures once they are built. Still, with the occasional exception, assembling lofty skyscrapers and constantly uprooting and reconstructing completed work can get tedious. As long as you tackle it in brief interludes though, the gorgeous 3D presentation and ample replay value makes the game an aspiring civil engineer's ideal coffee break diversion.