Quick Look: Connected for iPhone
I thought I had pretty much had my fill of “pipes” style games. You know, the type of game where you have a playing board divided into squares, with two pipe sections at opposite ends of the board, and you have to connect the two sections with more pieces of pipe? I’ve played enough of that style of game, whether it actually be centered around plumbing or not, that I couldn’t really imagine what else they could do with the genre. Well, if you want to know what else there is to do with such a game, all you have to do is give Connected a whirl.
Puzzle Solved
This starts out just like any other pipes game. You’re presented with a field that’s divided into squares. One or more squares has an “entry” pipe, and one or more squares has an “exit” pipe. Your job is to take all the pieces lying around in the squares and connect them such that they create an unbroken path between the entry and exit pipes. So how is this different than any other pipes game? Well, there are two reasons, both of which make Connected quite interesting.
The first is that not all the pieces in Connected are the same size. I don’t recall seeing any so far that are only one square, and you’ll get some that are one square high by two squares wide. Others will be taller than they are wide. Pretty much any configuration you can imagine is probably utilized. The second thing that makes Connected stand out is the fact that instead of clicking to rotate pieces (or to add them to the board in the first place), you drag your pieces like a sliding puzzle game. Because the pieces are all different shapes and sizes, this might actually require some planning so that you can get the pieces where you need them to be. It certainly makes for a nifty challenge.
The graphics are fairly simple, but they serve their purpose quite well. There are no real special effects or anything, but you don’t really need that for this style of game. The one thing I would like would be to see the background of the pipe tiles to be a little different than the standard tiles. My perception is a bit weird sometimes, and I don’t realize that I can’t move a piece simply because the top or bottom of another pipe is in the way. If the background color of the pipe tiles was different enough, I’d catch on right away. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no noise to compliment the atmosphere. Sound effects might be an acceptable loss here, because there’s not a lot of action going on. However, the phrase “silence is deafening” really fits the fact that there is no background music in this game.
Some will probably be turned off by the fact that there are “only” 40 levels. Normally, I’d be bothered by the fact that there is no noise. However, neither of those things matters when it comes to Connected. I’ve always been a fan of pipes style games, and this is the most original implementation I’ve seen of this genre in a long time. If you’re looking for a new puzzle game, and especially if you like pipes type games, you really should give Connected a shot.
Final Verdict: Recommended
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Tags: Connected, Eric Pankoke, iPhone, Made-up Software, Quick Look, review, technobrains
