While there are a few drawbacks to playing games on the iPhone, the device boasts a number of special features that can make gaming a truly unique experience. Many games make good use of the iPhone's touchscreen and accelerometer, but 3 Degrees of Wikipedia takes excellent advantage of a sometimes overlooked feature: A constant connection to the internet.

Reminiscent of the classic "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, 3 Degrees of Wikipedia gives gamers two distinct Wikipedia pages, and challenge them to find the one entry in the user-compiled online encyclopedia that links them both together. The game's developers intend for 3 Degrees of Wikipedia to help frequent Wikipedia readers create additional connections between subjects, making it easier to learn.

Whether 3 Degrees of Wikipedia can help anyone learn is still up in the air, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter because the game is a blast to play whether you are learning anything or not. 3 Degrees of Wikipedia is a unique take on puzzle games, as it gives you access to such a huge amount of information, and then challenges you to connect the dots.

3 Degrees of Wikipedia makes incredible use of the iPhone's internet capabilities, but also presents one of the game's few problems. Because all of the game's content is pulled from the web, you can't look forward to playing this game on subways, in areas with bad reception, or even on your iPod Touch when away from WiFi. Still, 3 Degrees of Wikipedia offers gameplay so fun and addictive, it's worth the $0.99 purchase price even if you can't play it absolutely everywhere.

The great thing about Wikipedia is that there are entries on almost anything you can think of, and if something is missing, you have the freedom to add it. 3 Degrees of Wikipedia is similar in its approach to user-created content. Not only are there a vast number of puzzles already available for play, but everyone who purchases the game has the opportunity to design their own puzzles. After completing a challenge, gamers are given the opportunity to score the puzzles they just played, which can bump them up in the rankings, putting them in front of even more people.

With few exceptions, the puzzles played as part of this review were all a blast, as they challenged gamers to find connections between diverse subjects, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Thomas Jefferson, Only Child and List of Peninsulas, and The Legend of Zelda and Shiva. The only small downside to 3 Degrees of Wikipedia's user-generated content is the fact that a disproportionate number of these puzzles involve somewhat off-color entries. For example, it took no more than five minutes to run across puzzles utilizing the entries for both "Fisting" and "Donkey Punch."

But while 3 Degrees of Wikipedia may very well instigate some uncomfortable discussions with younger players, for everyone else it's a stone-cold blast. And even if you feel offended or disgusted by a particular puzzle, there are so many to choose from that there's nothing wrong with just skipping a few.

Players should never skip puzzles due to their presumed difficulty, however, as there's no penalty for guessing wrong - you simply go back and try again. That means that every puzzle in 3 Degrees of Wikipedia is solvable by every player, even if they have to resort to the process of elimination. It might sound tedious, but with some of the off-the-beaten-path Wikipedia entries used in the game, it can be a lot of fun reading about random subjects, even if it doesn't help you solve a puzzle.

3 Degrees of Wikipedia is excellent at keeping things moving, in part because the Wikipedia articles used in the game are actually just excerpts. While the tremendous length of many full entries might make this a necessity, it could be a disappointment to Wikipedia fanatics. Then again, if you're really fascinated in a particular subject, your iPhone is have access to the internet...

One final critique of 3 Degrees of Wikipedia is that many of the puzzles feel too easy, especially once gamers get used to the type of logic employed. A way to ramp things up in future updates or even a new version of the game would be to increase the amount of degrees within the puzzles. This is only a small quibble though, and is nothing to prevent anyone from downloading 3 Degrees of Wikipedia and having a great time.

Final Score: A