The iTunes App Store is akin to a giant pail that you have to dig through to find the gems. You can spend hours wading through countless Scorched Earth clones and tower defense games before finding a true gem that uses the platform to its fullest extent.

Zen Bound is one of those games.

The gameplay in Zen Bound is deceptively simple, but difficult to master. Your goal is to wrap a rope that extends towards the screen around a multitude of carved wooden shapes such as an elephant or seahorse. As you wrap the rope around, the model begins to become painted and floods with color. You are only allocated so many meters of rope and this is where the challenge comes in. How can you wrap the rope around the model to paint every part of it and gain 100% completion?

The game is simply perfect for portable gaming. Each model only takes a few minutes to finish and each one offers a different challenge that requires a different approach. These challenges are split up between three "trees", that offer different kinds of wooden models and difficulty levels. You can choose to take it easy, only going for the minimum completion percentage needed, and grab some game time on the bus or tackle a different tree and get involved in some deep puzzle gameplay. It's just simple fun that features many levels of depth for players who want to pursue it.

The game's control is superb and simple and really makes you feel like you are manipulating the model in your hands. Every bit of the touch screen is used and is very intuitive.

As the title suggests, the game is focused on offering a slow and relaxing experience and the music definitely is key to achieving this. The music is very down tempo and trance like and is best experienced with headphones. It's relaxing, beautiful, and sets the mood perfectly for the gameplay. I would sometimes get lost in the music as I played and it certainly heightened the experience.

The graphics are no slouch either and help just as much. The wooden models are highly detailed and rendered beautifully in 3D. The visual effects are pretty cool as well. Watching the color flood the model as you wrap the rope around is amazing as it matches perfectly to the rope and doesn't seem like it was a pre-rendered. Even the lighting from the lamps on the trees and the flowers bloom as you progress up the different level trees is amazing and shows that developer Secret Exit didn't pull any punches.

Zen Bound is the puzzler every iPhone owner should have on their phone. It shows everything the iPhone can do and presents the platform as the innovative showcase is should be treated as. Get it, put your headphones on, and get lost in Zen Bound.

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