“Escape the world around you...with Zenses,” the instruction booklet started. The pre-release online descriptions of the Zenses Ocean for the Nintendo DS promised “Active Relaxation,” which sounded intriguing to me. I like to be active! I need to relax! Where do I sign up?

Meant for the casual gamer, the simple user interface of Zenses Ocean allows the player to dive right in and choose from 6 brain-challenging puzzle games. Choosing a game causes the instructions to appear in the “help” window on the top screen. The bottom screen houses the few existing game control options. Here, you can click to check out the high score board (which shows high scores and the dates they were achieved) or find extra challenges (such as “obtain a score of 30,000 points” or “reach round 20”) should you choose to work toward a specific goal. You can also control the “intensity” (game difficulty) should you need a stronger challenge.

This choice of using the word “intensity” rather than “difficulty” struck me as odd until I realized that it was probably intentional. The language I found throughout this game is amazingly supportive. In some games, when you clear a level, Zenses displays “Nice!” When you run out of time or turns, no matter how poorly you played, it displays “Well played. Please try again!” How sweet and encouraging! There are times when a little positive reinforcement goes a long way.

The games offer such puzzles as:
Zen-stones, in which you remove stones from a grid two-at-a-time by selecting identical stones that are touching each other. This involves some planning ahead to be able to remove all the stones.
Shell Twirl, where you find black shell shapes circling a whirlpool. You must fill the black shapes with corresponding shells (dispensed at the sides of the screen) before time runs out.
Hot Spot, where your goal image, an intricate “glowfish” (a creature that looks like an alien glowing lobster with a lot of little fiddly bits), is shown on the top screen. On the bottom screen, you must connect separate glowfish parts together to construct another glowfish by using the stylus to drag floating fiddly bits to the proper spots on a glowfish body before time runs out.
Wave breaker, a memory game where you must memorize the position of various shells on the beach before a wave hides them in the sand.

Since I’d had a stressful day and needed a break, I was anxious to try out this “Active Relaxation” firsthand. As I played through puzzles featuring rolling waves, sandy beaches, and a smooth new age soundtrack, I increasingly felt a disturbing and frustrating disconnect, especially in timed games, such as Shell Twirl. I quickly discovered my problem. The parts of my brain dedicated to problem solving and game playing lie in direct opposition to the parts of my brain dedicated to relaxing. While part of me wanted to tune out, close my eyes, and relax my mind, letting the soothing sounds of music and surf wash over me, I was forcing myself to be analytical and work quickly and accurately against a timer. So much for “relaxation!” Once I calmed down, I realized that I was asking for way more than a mere game could deliver, regardless of the story that the game’s marketers told. As long as I kept my focus on the enjoyment of the puzzles and not the supposed “relaxation” aspect of Zenses, I enjoyed myself, which is the end goal anyway.  In other words, this game is no substitute for a much-needed spa treatment.

The games themselves were fun and challenging. It’s easy to learn the basic rules, yet you definitely have to exert some brain power as the game gets harder. I could easily see myself pulling Zenses out when sitting in a waiting room or if I just needed a quick brain pick-me-up. The short length and elegant simplicity of the games should appeal to the casual gamer who just has a few minutes to kill.

The few problems I had playing the games involved the sensitivity of the DS stylus. This was most apparent in Shell Twirl, where I’d sometimes drop the shell before getting it to the right slot, and Hot Spot, where it sometimes takes a few frustrating tries to get the glowfish part to register that it’s in the right spot to stick to the body, leading to a lot of stylus tapping and unnecessary glowfish part rotation. That said, given that the purpose of these games is mere distraction, rather than building toward a larger time-intensive goal, the ensuing frustration was minimal.

I don’t know that Zenses Ocean delivers on its claim of allowing the player “to transcend the stresses of everyday life, unplug and experience an active escape,” as it promises in its instruction booklet, but if you’re looking for 6 engaging, brain-teasing games to be played within a pretty window dressing of ocean scenes and unobtrusive swells of new age tunes, then Zenses Ocean would definitely appeal to you. As long as you’re not expecting a spa retreat in a box, you should be satisfied.