Every now and again there comes along a game that really gets its hooks into the general population. In the run up to Christmas that game was Angry Birds. In the early part of 2011 then surely that game would be Cover Orange.

Cover Orange is made by FDG and follows a simple premise you have one or more oranges that you have to prevent getting rained on by a toxic cloud. It is a combination of platform and puzzle game. You must ensure that all your oranges are under some form of shelter. To help you with this you are given a set number of items such as a crate, wheel and oil drum. These items appear one at a time and you have to drop them onto the playing area below. Positioning is all important. Crates and oil drums are useful for forming the walls and roof of a shelter while a wheel can be used to set an orange rolling in order to get it into position.

Words do this game no justice at all. Everything about this game is good. The oranges look very cute (I never thought that would be something I would ever type). The music is infectious and will run round in your head for days. The levels balance out well between easy ones to help you learn new techniques and some fairly fiendish ones that take a bit of brain power to figure out exactly what order and where you need to dsrop your items to make sure your oranges are safe. The oranges are always very grateful when you do save them and when you don’t? They sould like a guy with Manflu.

The free version has 120 levels and the paid verion doubles this. Believe me when you’ve played the free version you will be frothing at the mouth to get your hands on the new levels. There is currently a  free bonus version out with a Valentines day theme that gives you 10 more levels to try.  The graphics are smooth and the physics engine is very good. You do need to keep your eyes peeled sometimes as you may find something like a small ramp that will give a wheel a bit of extra momentum when dropped on it to move your orange a little quicker. On various levels there are bombs. Bombs can be very beneficial, the explosion launching an orange over an obstacle, but if your orange is too close then it will get blown up.

This is definately my favourite game of the year so far, give it a go and let me know what you think.