Meet Zzed, the cutest space alien this side of the Milky Way (err, Zilky Way)!

Spelled with two Z’s, Zzed works as a space garbage truck pilot, and while space waste management may not sound like the most exciting career in the universe (hey, someone’s gotta do it) it’s only way Zzed can marry his lovely alien sweetheart. Don’t ask!

You must earn enough points in each level to prove to the boss, who just so happens to be his girlfriend’s dad, just how responsible and hardworking he is.

“Zzed” is an intergalactic space puzzle shooter. You there in the back looking all skeptical, that’s right -a space puzzle shooter. Puzzle shooters are the fastest growing game genre out there; they combine the best things about puzzles (thinking, planning), and shooters (reflex workout, hand-eye coordination.)

But y’know now that I stop and think about, “Zzed” barely falls into the category of "puzzle” game at all. It's really more of a fast-action arcade-style game I would say, with a great deal of strategy and skill thrown into the mix. It's the kind of game you can pick up and play right away yet its complex enough to be interesting and oh so addicting!

“Zzed” puts you in the pilot’s seat of his flying space garbage truck, and this is where the action part comes in.

The space craft is located in the middle of the screen and a constant flow of space junk (meteorites) spin toward you (rather fast, sometimes) and you must destroy them before they damage your ship. Any time Zzed has a collision with an asteroid, it takes down one of his lives (3 in all) if he is destroyed, you will forced to start the whole level over.

You will be able to move around the screen clockwise or counter-clockwise but within a very small playing field.

What makes the game a lil’ tricky is the puzzle part; you see all of the garbage pieces are color-coded asteroid/meteorite type balls and since you are pilot of a garbage truck, and not some super cool X-Wing fighter spacecraft you shoot…yep you guessed it, garbage pieces.

In order to destroy them you must shoot 3 or more pieces of garbage of the same color to get them stuck together so that they explode and disappear and you have cleared the field of all debris. Simply put, just think “Zuma” meets “Bubble Bobble.”

But the good news is, it is WAY better than either one of them! Yeah sure, on the surface it may seem identical to one another, but trust me this one is out of this world.

The faster you clear the board the better, for earning bonus points and special rewards, and also because if you take too long the asteroids inch closer and closer to your launcher.

There are also power-ups that are cleverly hidden behind a bunch of balls. Some of these will slow down the balls progression towards you, some actually make them back-up off you, great for when you are really bombarded with them and backed up against a wall. If at all possible, always go for one of these bonuses, later on in the game, it will be all but impossible to win without using them.

Tip: like-colored balls are attracted to each other, so if you open up a gap, and the balls on either side are the same color, the ones after the gap will cluster together. Very handy if you're skillful and/or lucky enough; you can create some pretty sweet multiple chain-reactions like this.

The action gets so intense at times that you may start to feel like a bad-ass space commando for about 17 seconds, but after that, it’s really all about matching like-colored balls as quickly as you can.

You control your spaceship using the mouse, the left button fires and the right button helps you fly around. Sounds pretty easy right? And it is…at first. Except in time the playing fields will be surrounded by lasers that work as electrified barriers to not only push the floating rocks towards you but to zap you if you get too close.

As the stages go on, they are a major obstacle problem because these laser fields sometimes leave you little or no room in which to maneuver. Tip: when a pile is getting too close to you, simply shoot some wrong colored pieces at it to push it back. That should do the trick!

I could have done without the strange and out of place storyline because it had nothing whatsoever to do with the in-game play! Honestly, they could have started the entire game with one line that read, “Fly through a solar system clearing out enemy asteroids’ and the game would have been set from beginning to end.

But instead, there’s a bunch of cut-scenes (not too many though) between Zzed and his boss after you complete each zone involving a lot of text dialogue about corporate scandals and anti-trust scapegoats, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Much too serious for a casual game if you ask me. Honestly, I could have done without the unnecessary business schemes and corrupted space politics.

So there we have it folks we play a big, Shrek-looking character that fights space waste with space waste- it is what it is. Just accept it.

Does it blow my eyes out with an array of bright, splashy colors or make my ears bleed with its cutting-edge sound? Nope. But the action packed gameplay certainly makes up for it.

You know, there are some games that I play in order to review them and while they may be good, after my review is written I move on to the next one.

Every once in awhile however there comes one or two that draws me to them like a bee to honey, that I just can’t get out of head, completely hooking me. “Zzed” is one such game.

I found myself muttering out loud “just one more level.”

I have played this game for more hours than I care to admit but it’s all in the name of research though, right? God, I love my job!!

You want another good example of how good it is? I have an Xbox 360, a Nintendo Wii, and a PS2 in my home. Guess which one I played pretty much this whole past weekend? None-because I was glued to my laptop fighting intergalactic space trash!