| Helping Video Tutorial »» |
 |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
Puzzle Games
Trism
Price: $5
Developer: Demiforce
Details: The Bejeweled-esque title uses the iPhone's accelerometer for a hardware appropriate block matching twist on the genre.
Impressions: OK I've got a new addiction, and I can carry it around in my pocket. Trism's slight tweak on the Bejewled game play is so profound that it changes the way you have to think about puzzle gaming. The basic premise, as with most puzzle games, is really simple. You have rows and columns of mutli-colored triangles. You slide them around to line at least three up and clear a space. The twist? The iPhone can detect which way you are holding the phone and drops the triangles into recently filled holes from the proper direction. So now you have to think carefully about which way to hold the phone before making a move. The fun basic play is backed up by three game modes, 22 unlockable achievements and an online international ranking board (I'm currently number two.) They even included a colorblind mode. One of my favorite iPhone games so far.
Motion X Poker
Price: $4.99
Developer: Fullpower Technologies
Details: Casino game where players shake the iPhone to roll dice.
Impressions: Motion X Poker is really just a poker dice game, but man, is it impressive. The ability to shake well-rendered 3D dice by shaking your phone, coupled with the rumble feature, is amazing. You can also choose to just roll a set of five dice. The game comes with 38 total different dice sets, though only eight are available at the start. The ability to roll dice and play whatever game you'd like is cool, though I wish they made it possible for you to select how many dice are on the screen. Also, wouldn't it be great if they added different types of dice, like a 20-sider, to it down the line?
Sudoku Vol. 1
Price: $5.99
Developer: Hudson
Details: Classic Sudoku gameplay oriented for the touch screen.
Impressions: Volume one of this fairly workable version of Sudoku includes 15 puzzles. The game is straight forward and includes both the ability to get hints in a puzzle (which is tracked) and the ability to use place marker numbers, a must for any serious puzzle solving. I like the presentation, but not the rather small number of
puzzles, though even the first is fairly hard.
Critter Crunch
Price: $9.99
Developer: Capybara Games
Details: IGF Mobile 2008 winner and IGN Mobile Best Puzzle Game of 2007. Lets players control Biggs, a friendly forest-dweller with an unending hunger for tasty critters. Using his long tongue, Biggs must set the food chain in motion by launching smaller creatures into the mouths of larger ones, clearing the screen and filling his belly.
Impressions: It's pretty clear why this game's won so many awards. It's accessible, polished, easy to play and has a fantastically adorable art aesthetic, albeit a little twisted in the context of feeding cute little blob guys until they explode into jewels and money. The core concept is simple ? organize the critters stacked in columns from one side of the screen to the other by grabbing them with a long tongue and then spitting them out where you'd like to place them. If a critter lands on one bigger than itself, it gets eaten, and you can create chains to clear the board. But different types of challenges, special items and cool strategic complications give it continually surprising depth and keep it interesting.
Enigmo
Price: $9.99
Developer: Pangea
Details: Physics based game that has you trying to move water droplets into a container.
Impressions: Enigmo is a fairly simple physics-based puzzler that has you moving objects around to try and divert falling drops of water into a container. The touch screen is used to place, move and rotate the objects. The game's basic graphics and fairly straight forward premise really didn't grab me.
Crosswords
Price: $9.99
Developer: Stand Alone
Details: Download and solve crossword puzzles from many newspapers.
Impressions: An expertly crafted Crosswords application that pulls in puzzles from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald and The Onion AV Club, among others. The interface borders on perfect, with informative progress bars for each puzzle, multiple hint options, a familiar Edit feature for deleting old puzzles, and smart touchscreen interaction. Only quibble? No obvious way to turn off the click sound during typing. Excellent.
Rolando
Release Date: Holiday 2008
Price: Not Yet Announced
Developer: Handcircus
Details: Looks to be a Locoroco-esque puzzle title using the touch screen for movement.
Aqua Forest
Price: $7.99
Developer: Hudson
Details: Particle physics-based puzzler.
Impressions: This physics based puzzle game goes for zen appeal, with a soundtrack that should appeal to the nightly Echoes listener and straightforward iPhone tilting gameplay. You'll draw and erase portions of the playfield with the touchscreen to guide water or a little will o' the wisp into the safe zone. For the price, we expected better than a chuggy framerate, sloppy English and a confusing interface. Aqua Forest has potential for fun, if you can get past the half-baked presentation.
|
|
