Tivola adds to its impressive offerings with this gorgeous game. Chemicus is educational, but it is also a role-playing adventure—think Myst junior. The game's beautiful graphics and deep puzzle-solving game play compete well with the best of the genre.

You play as a friend of Richard, who's been kidnapped and taken to a parallel world that is a repository for chemistry knowledge. Your task: to save your pal by solving increasingly difficult chemical conundrums using scientific principles.

To help you figure things out, you have access to the Brain Center, a chemistry encyclopedia. Unless you're a real whiz or just took a chemistry class, you'll need the clues it provides. But the best thing about Chemicus is that kids will want to dive in and learn as much as they can to move forward in the game. Tivola does not specify an age range, but we suggest 14 and older.