Puzzling.

I just read a little editorial that claims about a third of the mobile games downloaded in this country are "arcade puzzle" games--but that they only account for 10% or less of the games that are actually for sale on the carriers right now. The puzzle genre serves as sort of a catch-all category for most carriers, which greatly confuses the issue of what, exactly, an "arcade puzzle" game might be. I've seen the Puzzle moniker applied to all sorts of wildly different games, from the standard crosswords and block-eliminators to really off the wall choices like Taiko Drum Master. Impossible Mission--a side-scrolling platformer where the hero flips over robots and shoots them with a pistol--is currently listed under the Puzzle category on Verizon. Plus, I'm sure at least some of you played games like Tetris and Pac-Man (also frequently lumped into the Puzzle bin) in the arcade at one point or another. I know I did a couple of times when Virtua Fighter was occupied by this idiot-savant kid who never, ever lost.

I'm going to get people to join my union if I have to write a rambling op-ed EVERY SINGLE DAY.