Hexic HD hidden on the hard drive

If you purchased an Xbox 360 with a hard drive you have a little gem pre-installed on it that you might not have even tried out. Hexic HD, made by Alexey Pajitnov the creator of Tetris, is deceptively easy and addictive puzzle game. It’s sort of a mix between Bejewled and Tetris. Players rotate hexagons to group three or more pieces of the same color to clear them from the screen. Once those pieces vanish new pieces fall from the top. After you get used to the mechanics the game throws in star pieces that can double your points and bombs that can end a game if not matched up after a couple of moves. But clearing pieces from the board isn’t the true objective of the game. Instead players need to make a flower formation by surrounding one piece by six same colored pieces. That unlocks a starflower piece and when you have six starflower pieces you can put them together to make a black pearl. Finally, piecing together three black pearls wins a game. If you’re into puzzle games give Hexic HD a shot in between Perfect Dark Zero deathmatches and all those hours playing Oblivion. Or check out the game at MSN Games, it makes a great office diversion.