QuickLook.Technobrains

I can’t quite figure this game out.  It’s part Tetris, part match 3, but really doesn’t capture the best parts of either.  There are no power ups, it’s nearly impossible to clean up the board once you’ve gotten a few extraneous pieces out of place, and there’s nothing new about the game play at all.  On the plus side, though, the music is pretty good.  Too bad I couldn’t listen to the sound track while playing something else…

Starting To Get Full

Pieces come onto the playing board much like Tetris where they fall from the top of the screen and head towards the bottom.  Also like Tetris, each piece is comprised of multiple small blocks.  The most blocks used in a TriColor piece are 3, however, so you’ll get a single block, a set of two blocks, or a set of three that’s either in a straight line or that looks like a corner.  Your job is to position these pieces so that blocks of the same color line up horizontally, vertically or diagonally in groups of at least 3.  Once you’ve gotten a group together the group will disappear.  Depending on something, pieces that were attached to or on top of the ones that disappeared will fall.  What this depends on I really don’t know.  This is the biggest problem I have with TriColor.  Whether or not the pieces fall should be consistent (my vote is that they always fall).  On top of that, blocks that do fall will often stop short of coming in contact with another block.  I’m not sure what determines how far a block falls, either.

The goal is to keep going until unmatched blocks have reached the top of the screen.  That’s really all there is to it.  There are no sub-goals, no power ups, nothing to make the game stand out in any way.  To control the game you use the arrows at the bottom of the screen to move left or right.  Tapping on a piece will rotate it counter-clockwise.  There is no way to rotate a piece clockwise.  Clicking the down arrow will immediately send a piece as far as it can go towards the bottom of the screen.  It would have been really nice if the down arrow would have made the piece descend faster but not automatically move to the bottom of the screen.  Also, since I already have my hands to the sides of the screen in order to use the buttons, I would rather the pause button be the rotate button and make me click the game play area to pause.

The game looks decent, but it’s nothing special.  The main special effect is the lightening that encompasses a group of blocks before they disappear.  The sound effects are a bit odd.  Pieces coming together sound like cubes of ice rubbing, and the end result of the lightening destroying blocks sounds like a glass ornament popping and shattering.  As I mentioned at the beginning I do like the music, but even that can get kind of old since it’s the same song playing repeatedly.

Mobirate, the developer behind TriColor, has put out some other fun iPhone games including Brain Fit and Stick-Fu, so I guess I expected a bit more from this one.  Maybe they’ll revisit the game in the future and beef it up some, but until then I’d suggest getting Tetris, Columns, or one of the many match 3 games that exist on the App Store as an alternative to this.  Of course at 99 cents, you’re not out much if you don’t trust me.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
App Store Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Brain Fit is a puzzle game offering from Mobirate that came out quietly a couple of months ago, and it’s one of those that deserves a lot more attention then it received. The premise is simple: take the blocks at the bottom of the screen and arrange them to fit in the top of the screen. Unlike most pentomino derivative games, however, Brain Fit doesn’t use a variety of different playing fields. The shape you must fill every time is a rectangle. What does vary, however, are the pieces themselves. Instead of sticking to the 5 block configuration of a pentomino piece, Brian Fit will have pieces that range anywhere from 1 to 6 blocks in configuration.

Medium Level 16

The other thing that differs from most games of this style is that the pieces are actually “aware” of each other. In other words, you can’t simply select a piece and drag it to the top portion of the screen to try and fit it in somewhere. You will have to shuffle the pieces around so that the piece you want to move up has a clear path to the upper part of the screen. This adds an interesting level of complexity to the game. It can also get a bit frustrating at times, as the space you have to maneuver in is quite limited. However, in the end it provides a fresh experience for this type of puzzle game.

The visuals are nothing special, but they look nice and professional. The brightly colored blocks help keep the atmosphere from being too drab. The sound effects are okay, but mostly I could do without them. I really like the music, however. It’s sort of like elevator music on steroids, and it really provides a relaxing melody. I don’t know if the different difficulty levels have their own tune or not, as I’m not quite out of the easy set yet, but even if they don’t I wouldn’t mind listening to this tune throughout the game.

If you’re looking for a challenging puzzle game that’s not just another clone, Brain Fit would be a good choice for you. The 90 levels will keep you busy for a while, and when you need to take a break you can just sit and listen to the background music while you’re checking your email!

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Store Link – Lite Version
App Shopper Link

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]