Cities is a fun freeware brainteaser for Windows designed by Max Tillberg based on tiles from Carcassonne, an inventive board game from Hans im Gluck, a German publisher, published outside Germany by Rio Grande Games. There is even a little plot: as engineer in a small country, the King wants you to build the country's road network. He wants a road to each of his neighbors, and he also wants all the roads to be connected.

The game plays like a normal sliding-tile puzzle, but with some unique twists. The game consists of 16 tiles which consist of roads, cities, and grass. You have to arrange the tiles in such a way that they fulfill three conditions. First, the number of roads leading out of the game screen must be the same as the number of neighbors. The number of neighbors varies depending on the puzzle you are solving. Second, all roads must connect to another road or lead out of the game screen (similar to Pipe Mania). Lastly, all tiles except the blank must be connected with each other. The more conditions you can meet, the better your score will be.

The game is quite unique and addictive, and the small size makes it a great puzzler to play during your coffee break. If you like abstract puzzle games with no luck involved and no reflexes required, you will have a lot of fun with this underrated freeware gem. Highly recommended!