You've got to give Nintendo a lot of credit. It certainly knows how to develop some interesting first party games for its systems. The DSi is no exception. The latest example of this is the new DSiWare puzzle game, Link 'n' Launch, currently available as a five dollar download through the Nintendo DSi Shop service. But will this space-based puzzler rocket to success? Or is it a failure to launch?

Link 'n' Launch hits the DSi courtesy of Nintendo's internal development team at Intelligent Systems. While you might not know the name, odds are pretty good you've played their games. The folks over at Intelligent Systems are responsible for the Paper Mario, Advance Wars, and Fire Emblem series. The team is also responsible for the quirky, yet addictive, WarioWare games, proving that they know how to grab a hold of a gamer's attention in convenient bite sized chunks.

Link 'n' Launch is an interesting twist (pun intended) on the classic Pipe Mania and Pipe Dream games from the late 80s/early 90s. This time around, players have to help get a rocketship from Point A to Point B on its journey through space by refueling its boosters with globs of fuel conveniently floating along the way. Players have to flip, turn, twist, and roll various pipe tiles in order to create a clear, unobstructed pathway between the fuel and one or all of the rocket's three boosters.

You can't just slide pieces wherever you want, though, as that would be way too easy. Instead, tiles lock together magnetically at the corners. This alters how they can move around the board. Pieces rotate when moved at one axis point, but flip like a page in a book when connected at two points. After connecting the fuel to one of the boosters, the fuel will immediately travel through the pipe, ignite, and launch the rocket further along its path (or at least to the next stage).

In early stages, all the player has to worry about is simply getting the fuel to the rocket. Later in the game, things get a little more difficult, as firing off one booster over another can cause the rocket to veer off course, crashing into a passing meteor, or running out of time and drifting aimlessly light years away from the nearest gas station. Luckily, you'll occasionally get help in the form of power-ups, which can be picked up by making sure your fuel line intersects with special tiles scattered around certain stages. These can be used to add time to your clock, upgrade you rocket for better fuel efficiency, or to create new patches of fuel and cause chain reactions to better fill your tank.

Link 'n' Launch gives players a lot of bang for their buck. The game's Mission mode consists of ten stages, each which challenges the player to complete a series of puzzles as fast as possible in order to deliver cargo to a nearby planet. If you don't feel like dealing with the pressure of the clock, the game's Puzzle mode features 100 different individual stages for the player to complete. In the Puzzle mode, though, you're not competing against a time limit. Instead, players have to try and complete each of the stages in as few moves as possible. Regardless of which mode you play, shaving a few seconds off your time or a few moves off your record might keep you coming back in the short term, but doesn't lend much to Link 'n' Launch's long term replay value. Due to the lack of any randomness in the puzzles, once you've got the patterns down, there's not any reason to go back.

Even with the lack of any real replay value, Link 'n' Launch is still one of the best deals you'll find on the DSi Store. The game is easily one of the better ways to spend 500 points ($5). The game's visuals are simple but fun, and the gameplay is easy to learn and highly addictive. It might not revolutionize the puzzle genre, instead borrowing elements from some "old school" classics. However, the end result is still a game that's sure to ignite interest and fly high with DSi owners.

Final Score: B