Merriam-Webster Crossword Puzzles and Word Challenges
Compatible with Palm OS and Pocket PC

Are word games your thing? Do you enjoy spending your whole Sunday afternoon finishing the crossword puzzle? Then you'll love this collection of four brain-twisting word games.

The highlight of this card is the Merriam-Webster crossword puzzle collection, which has 1,000 puzzles. Choose from three difficulty levels and you're ready to play. The games fit your handheld's screen exactly, so there's no awkward scrolling.


Merriam-Webster Crossword Puzzle and Word Challenges comes with four excellent word-based games.

Besides the crosswords, this card also has TextTwist, WhatWord, and Link Letters. In TextTwist, the clock counts down as you try to make as many words as possible from a set of six letters. You'll need to form at least one six-letter word to move to the next level. WhatWord gives you a block of random letters that you'll need to rearrange into words. Link Letters is a problem-solving game, where you'll need to swap letters in order to turn the start word into the end word.

$29.99, www.gomdm.com

Monopoly, Battleship, Yahtzee, and Scrabble
Compatible with Palm OS and Pocket PC

Sometimes you have to return to the classics. This excellent collection features four board games that we all grew up on-Monopoly, Battleship, Yahtzee, and Scrabble-beautifully adapted for the small screen. All of them let you play against the computer or two, three, or four human opponents. We love that they all have infrared and Bluetooth options so that you can play against someone using a different handheld.


Four classic board games come to your handheld.

You might think that a Monopoly board is too big for a puny handheld screen, but you'd be wrong, since the beautifully crisp graphics show the board and all its details perfectly. The other three games display just as well, and together they prove that the best old games make the best new ones.

$49.99, www.handmark.com

PopCap Puzzle Pack, aka Bejeweled Puzzle Pack
Compatible with Palm OS

This collection of five colorful games could be the perfect time-waster. We couldn't stop playing Bejeweled, a simple game where you swap gems around in order to get them into rows of three or more. It sounds easy and is, which is part of the reason why it's so addictive. There's just enough of a challenge to keep you hooked. Start playing it and, before you know it, an hour will have gone by.


Bejeweled

Our second favorite is Alchemy, where you need to fill up the game board with connecting symbols in order to turn the board from "lead" to "gold." It becomes difficult quickly, as new symbols are introduced with each level.

Add to that Mummy Maze (a logic game where you need to guide your explorer out of a pyramid while avoiding a mummy), Seven Seas (avoid pirates while steering your ship), and Atomica (move colored atoms around to build molecules), and you have a great collection for filling up down-time.

$19.99, www.gomdm.com

Sega Classics
Compatible with Palm OS

While people in their mid-30s will love the Atari Retro expansion card, those in their mid-20s will go for this bargain-priced collection of older Sega console games. Sonic the Hedgehog heads up the card with the classic 2D side-scrolling game that has him battling Dr. Robotnik, an evil scientist who's turning animals into killer robots.


Play older Sega console games with Sega Classics.

The other three games on this card are new to us, but they provide the same type of console adventure as Sonic does. In Shinobi you play an expert ninja on a mission to rescue some female ninja trainees. Super Columns is a Tetris-style game where you need to arrange falling blocks to fill in the area underneath, while Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya is an exciting strategy-based RPG, where you marshal your forces to protect the kingdom of Cypress.

$13.99, www.gomdm.com

Tetris Classic Game Pack Compatible with Palm OS and Pocket PC

Tetris captured the minds of a generation when it debuted, and this simple game of spatial arrangement is already a classic. It anchors this excellent collection of mostly low-key strategy games, which have enough variety to keep you busy for hours.

Besides Tetris, the games you'll get actually vary, depending on whether you're using a Palm OS or Pocket PC handheld. Palm users will get Colors (where you have to match colored balls to score points), Backgammon, Chess, Checkers, 3D Air Hockey (which perfectly recreates the fast pace of the real thing), Poker Dice, Solitaire, and 3D Slider.


In Colors, you earn points by getting same-colored balls together.

Pocket PC users get Backgammon, Checkers, Colors, Chess, and four solitaire games, so it's a better deal for Palm users. Surprisingly, the documentation inside the jewel box case says that Pocket PC users get Air Hockey and Slider, although those are only for the Palm OS.

$49.99, www.handmark.com