The first of three levels -- Simon says please don't call Milton Bradley's lawyers.

Quick: How many of you can recite five of your friends' actual phone numbers without pulling up a contacts list?  Yup, thought so.  While the iPhone may be partly to blame for such abysmal memorization skills, Garf reverses the trend by straining those cognitive muscles with three memory puzzles.

To compete in this mental triathlon you'll tap out incremental patterns of colored, tonal buttons on the iPhone's touchscreen.  Level 1 plays like a straight port of Milton Bradley's Simon, with four buttons that beep Atari style when pressed. Complete a string of 20 presses without three brain-farts and you'll unlock Level 2, a dewey leaf dotted with five lady bugs that chime like piano keys. 

This puzzle dispenses with the training wheels by only illuminating the bugs' colors during the display patterns. Twenty more presses will unlock the third and final level that literally threw us for a loop.

Here, the lady bugs are replaced by four colored blades mounted on an animated 3D windmill. Follow the blades as they twirl around the windmill, paying close attention to their color and flute sounds instead of physical position. Harder than it looks, trust us. Our lone gripe is that the windmill blades don't register when you touch them too far from the shaft. Touch accuracy aside, though, master this level and you'll be crowned Johnny (or Janey) Mnemonic and earn a hefty high score.

Garf's attractive presentation and near flawless execution make for a solid and guilt-free impulse buy. While we'd like to see more puzzles added with future updates, the three levels here can improve your memory skills substantially in short bursts. And you can't put a price on memory.

Pro Tip: Rotate the iPhone so that the spinning windmill blades stay in the same position.

Garf is a value-priced puzzle memory game scant on flaws and big on presentation.

Garf
COMPANY: Mauvila Software
CONTACT: www.mauvillasoftware.com
PRICE: $1.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 software update
Innovative twists on an old classic. Attractive presentation.
Only three levels. Minor touch control issue.