Games

Riddles

You can find all kinds of challenges at Addicting Games (addictinggames.com), from strategy to shooters to sports. When you need to exercise your brain, the Lightybulb series will give it a good workout. Round 3 arrived early this year, and once again it tests your deductive reasoning to figure out how to turn on a lightbulb. If you haven't tried this series before, start out with Lightybulb and Lightybulb Round 2, which can also be found on the site. Don't be deceived into thinking this is an easy game after you've solved the first three or four puzzles. As the game progresses, you'll increasingly need to tax your gray matter to think out solutions. By the end of Lightybulb Round 3 - if you get that far - your brain will be exhausted, but you'll also have a sense of accomplishment and superior smarts.

Plays to de-stress

Video games can be used for more than just entertainment; one Bellevue, Washington, startup thinks they can help improve mental health. Litesprite develops games to help people dealing with stress, anxiety and depression. Its first game, Sinasprite, encourages players to journey with Socks, a fox who wants to be a Zen master. Players complete activities such as journaling and meditation to unlock different rooms and scenery within the game.

"Through the experiences, players learn more about themselves," says CEO and founder Swatee Surve.

Patients play, and clinics get information about which coping mechanisms seem to work best for each person. Health professionals can then decide on treatment options.

Music

Perry's Witness

It doesn't exactly drop through the net with the grace of a Steph Curry three-pointer: "Swish, swish, bish, another one in the basket/Can't touch this, another one in the casket." That taunting chorus from Swish Swish, the Nicki Minaj-featuring, Taylor Swift-dissing single on Katy Perry's ungainly new album is an "I'm-awesome-and-you're-not" song that lands with a thud. "Your game is tired, you should retire/You're about as cute as an old coupon expired." Such a burn!

Witness means to be soul-searching, self-enlightening, and socially conscious while transporting Perry into funkier territory. Witness is still sure to be an enormous success, but on tracks like Save as Draft, which takes great pains to comment on how we communicate in the digital age, fun is absent. The exception that proves the rule is the genuinely grooving Pendulum, which features producer Jeff Bhasker and super-bassist Pino Palladino.

Tribune News Service