THIS BOOK IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE

In this challenging set of visual puzzles, a dozen user-activated “bombs” blow a hapless robot from Hydropolope to Planet Kakalooki, leaving behind scrambled scenes to reassemble.

Conducted by a helium-voiced narrator, Tiki-Zin3 is propelled into space, past Saturn and the “ancient spacecraft Voyager I,” through a wormhole and on to an eventual planetfall. At each of his 12 stops, a bomb floats into view, explodes with a different combination of taps and leaves a jumbled pile of rocket parts or other space junk to drag back into their original positions. Other than going back to the opening screen to touch an index icon, there is no way to advance except by completing each reassembly in turn. Help in this task is provided through buttons that toggle back to the previous screens, as well as correctly positioned outlines that appear after several failed attempts to place pieces. In spite of this, most of the puzzles—particularly the blobby Kakalookian landscape and Tiki-Zin3’s garden, which has to be reconstructed in near-total darkness—are real tests of visual memory.

Not much for storyline, but engagingly silly and tricky. Not to mention: bombs! (iPad game app. 5-8)