Molecule by AIM Productions $14.99 US
Reviewed March 2002

Chemistry, anyone? Molecule is a puzzle game where you connect strings of atoms into molecules until there are no free electrons. Once you've done this the molecule can be vaporized- but you're on the clock, you have a limited amount of time before the atoms fill up a tube. There are four different atoms (red, green, blue and yellow) each having a certain number of electron points. Atoms placed on a molecule will only bond with atoms of a higher electron point value. I was lost before I grasped the concept, but once I did figure it out I was hooked! This game is virtually endless, as long as you don't let the atoms fill up the tube. The short tutorial is very effective in explaining how the game is played. You can go in and out of the game without loosing track of your scores or levels. I'm sure some people out there have scores in millions.

Playing Hints and Tips

The basic idea here is to understand how the atoms relate to each other in terms of electron points. My method might not be the best way to play this game, but it got me high scores and I have yet to end the game. I put red atoms in the middle because they have the highest electron points, and then surround them with blue atoms, which have the next highest electron point value. Then I use, most of the time, yellow atoms to surround the blue ones, which is a very economical way of using the yellow atoms. I usually put the green atoms together in a group where they vaporize each other. Sometimes I use the green ones to surround the blue, but often I don't have enough space to complete the molecule. So red in the center, blue outside the red, yellow outside of the blue, green by itself. Be careful with the yellow atoms. They are extremely useful in completing a molecule because they have the lowest electron point value. You can vaporize them very easily be accidentally putting two yellow atoms together (oops!).