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]

Like most of HeroCraft’s iPhone games I first experienced Robo on my Pocket PC, and on that platform it was one of my favorites from this developer.  I would argue that holds true of the iPhone as well.  Be warned that unlike most of their other offerings, however, Robo is not a causal “pick up and play” game.  It won’t take long before you start getting into levels that require thinking, planning and probably a few restarts before you solve them.  Simple it’s not, but worthwhile it most definitely is.

A Winter Wonderland... With Lasers!

Robo is a fresh take on the old “mirrors and lasers” game.  The plot is that your girlfriend has been kidnapped – ah, robo-love – and you must rescue her.  Unfortunately, her captor has littered the way to his lair with a series of traps comprised of lasers reflecting off of mirrors which are blocking your way to the exit to each level.  You must clear a path to the exit by moving either the lasers, the mirrors or both.  Along the way you might also get boulders and / or bombs to help or hinder your progress.  You must use all your wits to figure out where everything needs to go in order to clear your path.  Keep in mind that laser beams and explosions from bombs are bad for robots, so you’ll always want to stay clear of those things or you’ll be starting the level over.

One nice feature in the iPhone version that didn’t exist in the Pocket PC version (or at least in the version I played) is the ability to undo moves.  Of course, this doesn’t apply to a move that causes you to blow up or disintegrate, but it will reverse a mirror pushed too far or a rock pushed in the wrong direction.  On the other hand, the feature I’m least happy about is the movement.  I’m not quite sure how I would have implemented it any better, but it’s hard getting used to controls that pop up only when you press the screen, especially given that the arrows don’t react unless you’re on top of them.  I know that’s the way it should be, but that means if you want to go up and you didn’t click the screen in quite the right spot for the up arrow you need to slide your finger over.  It just seems a little awkward to me.

The highlight of this game is the visuals.  Individual objects are a tad on the small side, but everything is incredibly detailed and wonderfully animated.  Just one example of “above and beyond” are two little birds playing on a twig on top of the bushes on the grassy levels.  They even went so far as to show your character’s reflection in the mirrors when you’re pushing them.  The main character is also quite entertaining to watch.  His head is a computer monitor, and when he sits idle for a while the face will be replaced with all sorts of amusing images, such as a test pattern or an aquarium complete with fish swimming around.  There’s even a little skull displayed should your character happen to get fried.  The sound effects are decent, but the music rocks.  This is one of those games where you can easily listen to the music while you’re going about doing other things.

If you’re a casual gamer, Robo definitely isn’t for you.  However, if you love a good challenge this is a great choice, especially for a small price.  There are 76 levels in the game, and some of them are bound to keep you busy for a while.  Won’t you help Robo get his girlfriend back?

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

I feel like I’m saying this more and more lately, but it’s more true every day: the App Store is over-saturated.  So what’s a game to do to stand out?  Sadly, it doesn’t always take originality, because if that were the case iBzoing should have earned more attention.  Of course, the fact that you can’t really pronounce the name doesn’t help a whole lot, but that’s been the case of some of the best games I’ve played over the years.  I think the game could use a bit more polish and flash, but it’s a nice start and quite a unique game.

The premise is simple: guide one or more balls into holes of the same color on the playing field.  This isn’t your typical Super Monkey Ball style action, however.  This is an old fashioned 2D puzzle game, and while you can control the left and right motion of the balls to an extent through tilting the device, you must launch the balls into the air via colored tubes with rings on the end.  There’s a trick to this, however.  A ball can only enter a ring of the same color as the ball.  And, the ball will take on the color of the tube attached to the ring.  To further complicate things, a ball will roll through walls that are a different color than it and bounce off of walls that are the same color.

The trick is in providing just enough tilt to get the ball where you want it to go.  The problem is that a lot of times it feels more like luck of the draw than like you’re actually using any skill.  I also think the difficulty balance is a bit off.  For the longest time I was stuck on level 8, and when I finally beat that one level 9 was a piece of cake.  I’ve since inadvertently restarted the game, and level 3 is an immense pain compared to levels 1 and 2.  Difficulty levels should slowly climb throughout the course of the game, and not jump sporadically across the board like that.

Which Way Do I Go?

Graphically the game is plain.  The objects are basic lines and circles, which I realize is all that’s necessary to play the game.  However, in this case it feels a bit too simplistic.  The game could use a little more flash.  Maybe something besides a solid background.  Maybe some sparks when you beat a level.  I don’t know, but it just needs something.  Even the title screen is nothing more than the word iBzoing with two buttons.  The sound effects are fine, and I’m not really sure what you’d do with them anyway.  Unfortunately there is no music, so the overall atmosphere of the game is pretty bland.

I contend that the biggest reason iBzoing got lost in the shuffle is because of the presentation.  There’s a great game trapped inside of a less than professional package.  The game starts out with a title and two buttons.  One lets you play from the last level you were on, while the other starts from the beginning.  There are no labels, however, so you just have to press one and hope for the best.  There are no instructions, either, and the little description to be found in the App Store doesn’t help much.  If you’re the kind of person that’s hung up on fancy graphics, the screens shots won’t sell this one for you either.  Basically, there’s not a lot about the game that says “hey, try me”.

That’s a shame, because you’ll be missing out on a pretty original experience, especially if you’re a puzzle gamer.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of polish and extreme difficulty I can’t flat out recommend the game, but despite all the things that would normally cause me to say “no thanks” I can’t flat out not recommend it either.  So, the final result is…

Final Verdict: On The Fence
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[All About Quick Looks]

Enigma is a perfect name for this game.  Not because it’s challenging or because it makes you think.  The real riddle is why anyone would want to play it.  Lack of instructions, visual blandness and no audio at all are just some of the issues Enigma contends with.  It may sound like I’m being pretty harsh here, but now I’ll back up my sentiments.

You launch the game and you’re taken right to the game board.  No splash screen or anything.  If you recognize the layout of the board and / or are familiar with the inspiration, you’ll realize this is a Mastermind clone.  If you’re not familiar with Mastermind and you haven’t really read the App Store description then good luck, because there are no in-game instructions.  Just in case you’re wondering, I’ll give you a brief rundown of how the game is played.  You have somewhere between four to six slots to fill, depending on the level you choose.  You also have a certain number of guesses, depending on which level you’ve chosen.  The higher the level, the more guess you get.  So what are you guessing?  What goes in the slots, of course.

Discover The Sequence

To the left of the game board are somewhere between 6 and 8 pegs, again depending on skill level chosen.  To fill the slots you click on a slot in the first available row, then click on one of the pegs to the left.  Up until you “check” the correctness of a given row you can change the combination of pegs as much as you want.  Once you check your answer, which is accomplished by clicking the icon of two pegs in the menu panel (a check would have made much more sense), the game will tell you how many you got right, and then go to the next row.  This is one part that confuses me.  There is a second set of slots on the right side of the screen, and they will be filled with white, grey or no pegs when you check your answer.  The white are for “right” answers, but I can’t determine if it means the pegs are in the correct position or if you just have two pegs of the right color in the row, or what’s going on.  This is where instructions would come in really handy.

Basically, you keep guessing sequences of pegs until you either get the sequence right or you run out of rows to fill in.  Or, like in my case, you just quit the game.  Without knowing what exactly the indicators on the right hand board mean, it’s really difficult to know how to win the game.  The App Store claims that this is 6 games in one, but what that really means is that there are six difficulty levels which change the size of the board and number of peg colors to choose from, as well as whether you want to allow duplicates in the sequence or not.  Personally, calling that “six games in one” is a bit misleading as far as I’m concerned.

Now if the game’s presentation was good, I might be willing to muddle through and try to determine what the “correctness” indicators mean.  Unfortunately, it’s not.  Beyond the fact that there is no help, the menu system is ridiculous.  The icons don’t do a great job of representing their tasks, and because of the small space allotted for things you actually have to click a button to get the second half of the menu.  The sad part is all the second menu does is let you change the look of the game, so why couldn’t that be in the options screen?  The game itself is nothing special to look at.  The backgrounds are fine except that they are mostly covered by the board anyway.  Some of the tile sets for the pegs are nifty, but nothing really wowed me.  You can also change the color of the board for what that’s worth, but personally I felt the overall look of the game was a bit amateurish.  There are no sound effects or music.  You can play your own music, which I actually decided to take advantage of for once, but if you don’t pick enough songs the music will just stop in the middle of the game.  Guess they don’t believe in looping playback.

I’m trying to think of a single reason I can recommend this game, but nothing comes to mind.  If you’ve never played Mastermind before, you can probably find a free clone on the internet.  If not, maybe check for one in the App Store itself.  If you’re really desparate to play, try tracking down the original board game on eBay.  Whichever route you go, it will probably be better than Enigma.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
App Store Link
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

I had the pleasure of reviewing Hexagon Labs for the Pocket PC (see here), and with the exception of a couple of niggling points about length and multi-player capabilities, I really liked the game.  Now the game has come to the iPhone, and the good news is that it is just as fun to play.  In fact, I’m rather enjoying making my way through all the levels again.  The bad news, though, is that they didn’t address my multi-player concerns (there are more levels, thankfully).

Across The Great Divide

Hexagon Labs is an Othello clone at heart, but offers some features that make it more interesting than it’s predecessor.  The basics of the game are that you must take over as much of the playing board as possible, and you do that by moving your pieces around the board.  When you select a piece you will be shown the possible moves you can make.  If you move the piece to an adjoining space you will get a new piece.  If you move the piece two spaces away the piece will “jump” to that space.  The bonus is that if the space you land in is bordered on an side by your opponents, all of your opponent’s pieces that are touching that space will become your color.  Of course, the same applies for the opponent.

The first feature that Hexagon Labs employs to enhance gameplay is the use of hexagons (hence the name) for spaces instead of the traditional squares.  This allows for the potential of six points of attack instead of just four.  Next, the boards come in all shapes and sizes, including some that have gaps that force you to jump to get across them.  Some of the maps actually have 3 players instead of just two, and some even split your initial allotment of pieces up into multiple groups.  All of these factors put a different spin on the strategy required to solve a particular board.

The game offers multi-player, but it’s only hot-seat (all on the same device) and the boards are the same as the ones for single player.  I haven’t seen a way that you can specify that one of the players be computer controlled, either, so if you want to play one of the three player boards you need three physical players or someone is going to be doing double duty.  While I’ve never been much for online play, I’ve come to appreciate it more with iPhone games like Draw Race and Baseball Slugger 3D, and I think Hexagon Labs would be well suited for online play in addition to the hot-seat mode.  It would also be nice if there were some boards specific to multi-player mode.

Hexagon Labs looks sharp, but like most puzzle games there aren’t tons of fancy special effects.  However, the effects when pieces morph colors is pretty nifty.  The sound effects when the pieces are morphing are also neat.  And, as with most HeroCraft games, the music is quite enjoyable.

I haven’t really looked into what sort of Othello type games are available for the iPhone, but I would say that the production values on Hexagon Labs lends itself towards being one of the better ones.  For those who haven’t played a game like Othello before, this is a great place to start.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

When I first heard about Bubble Shuffle for the iPhone I thought it was just a renamed iPhone version of the game Bubble Babble and I thought “great, Bubble Babble is coming to the iPhone!”  Then when I realized it was a sequel I thought “even better!”  Now that I’ve spent some time playing it, though, I’m not sure I find it as endearing as the original.  The sites and sounds are familiar in a good way, but the game play just doesn’t seem as original as the first game.  Bubble Shuffle was an okay placeholder, but thankfully they finally ported Bubble Babble to the iPhone.

Bubble Shuffle is all about words.  More specifically, it’s all about “how many words can you form with letters x,y and z?”  There are four modes of game play in Bubble Shuffle: Shuffle Rush, Shuffle Puzzle, Fast Finder and Discovery.  The first two are a pair and so are the second two, each differing only by the fact that one mode is timed and the other isn’t.  In the Shuffle variants, you must get at least one word with a certain number of letters in it.  All the rest are icing on the barnacle, as it were.  In Fast Finder and Discovery you must build a certain number of words from the letters you are given.

Need A Six Letter Word

No matter which mode you play you are presented with a list full of blanks that shows how many words can be formed with the letters you are given.  To form words you can either click on the letter bubbles in the correct order or drag them to the area where you are spelling the word.  When you feel you have a valid word press the Enter button.  You’ll either receive points for the word and it will be added to the list, or you’ll be told that it’s not a proper word.  Either way the spelling area will be cleared.  If you make a mistake you can press clear to remove all the letters, drag the letters around the spelling area to rearrange them, or simply drag a letter you don’t want out of the spelling area.  Finally, if the order the available letters are displayed in isn’t helping you to think, click the shuffle button to rearrange them.

Like most puzzle games these days there are awards to be won for achieving certain milestones, but Bubble Shuffle only has 7 altogether.  There are also records, including high scores and the quantities of certain lengths of words that have been found.  The awards are broken up by mode.  Finally, the state of each mode can be saved independently in terms of progress in a game, which is actually pretty nice.  My biggest issue with Bubble Shuffle is that it’s not all that exciting.  Games that have you spell words are a dime a dozen on the iPhone, but Bubble Shuffle doesn’t really offer anything above and beyond that.

Graphically the game looks decent, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary.  The words in the “already solved” list are actually quite readable, which is nice given the limited room available.  The fish that guides you through the game is cute, but other than a little bit of a shake every once in a while it’s not very animated.  The only other real movement in the game is the slight ripple of water at the top of the screen.  Sound effects are okay, but they don’t really add anything to the game.  The music is pretty decent, but it more or less heightens the peaceful, dull nature of the game.

Given the plethora of word games that are available for the iPhone, Bubble Shuffle really needed to do something different to stand out, and unfortunately it didn’t.  It’s a solid game, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and what’s there gets kind of boring after a while.  The atmosphere is pleasant but uninspirational.  It’s a shame that with the wealth of puzzle goodness Astraware / Handmark has at it’s disposal that Bubble Shuffle had to be one of their first iPhone puzzle releases.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
App Store Link
App Shopper Link

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Skyworks does a pretty good job at creating sports mini-games, but I really wanted to see them try their hand at something else.  That something else is Mental Blocks, a “clear the board of tiles” type puzzle game, and it’s actually pretty good.  It takes some standard game play and infuses it with enough specials to make it more interesting than the variants you’re probably used to.

There have been several variants of the Mental Blocks theme on both mobile devices and desktop computers, though at the moment I’m having a mental block trying to come up with the names of any of them.  The basic premise is that you have a screen full of blocks of various colors, and you must clear the screen by removing groups of two or more of the same color.  As you remove blocks, blocks above them will fall down.  When there are gaps at the lowest level of the board, the blocks on the right will slide towards the left.  If you clear the board or get to the point where there are no more groups of two or more of the same color left, the level is over.

High Stacks To Clear

Thankfully, this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the game.  For every 500 points you earn you get a bonus point.  You also get a bonus point for each group of more than 10 blocks that you clear away.  If there are unused blocks at the end of the level, a block will be removed for each bonus point that you have.  If you still have bonus points left over, you can move on to the next round.  There are also special blocks that are introduced from time to time.  These blocks will do things like delete one block on each side of it, remove rows and / or columns of blocks that are touching it, and remove all blocks of a particular color (computer’s choice, of course).   You can even earn extra points if the special blocks are the last ones that you clear from the board (a special block doesn’t need a match to be cleared).

If you’re the competitive type, you’ll be happy to know that Mental Blocks, like just about every other Skyworks game, has a global scoreboard.  This doesn’t really matter much to me, but I’m sure some of you will appreciate it.  What really makes this game stand out from others of its type are the bonus points and special blocks, both very welcome additions to an ailing genre of puzzle game.

Look At My Title

The graphics are crisp and clear, but pretty basic.  No fancy explosions or combos or anything to see here.  The sound effects are actually pretty good, though they don’t really have much to do with the type of game Mental Blocks is.  Unfortunately there is no music, and the pacing of the game is such that it really could use something playing in the background.

This genre of puzzle game has never been of big interest to me, but Mental Blocks sure goes a long way towards making it an amusing type of game.  A boost in the aesthetic department would be nice, and some additional game play elements – a timed mode maybe – would certainly liven things up, but as it stands Mental Blocks is a decent effort for a tested puzzle game genre.

Final Verdict: Recommended
App Store Link
App Store Link – Lite Version
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[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

Supernova Blast is a chain reaction style game.  You have a board that’s four columns across by five columns down, and each square may or may not be populated with an energy star or supernova.  An energy star has three stages (green, blue and red), and then turns into a supernova.  Supernovas explode and send pieces flying in four directions (north, south, east and west) until they travel off the board or hit something.  The object of the game is to explode all of the objects on the board in as few moves as possible.  Each board has two numbers: how many hits the board is solvable in, and how many hits you’re allowed before you lose on the board you’re playing.

Blast Away

A hit is the act of tapping one energy star or supernova.  On easy level, the number of allowable hits is usually bigger than the number of hits required to complete the board.  By the time you get to the hard setting these two numbers are the same.  The board layouts are identical, however, so if you want a challenge right out of the gate start with the hard difficulty setting.  Even the easy level will provide you with a lot of entertainment, since the developer boasts 250 levels in the game.  Playing the game is as simple as clicking the object you wish to manipulate, and the only real complaint I have with the game play is that when you beat a level but don’t complete it within the “solvable” limit, the game still automatically advances you to the next level.  I’d really like the option to retry the current level (to do that now you have to exit to the menu, select continue, then pick your level).

Graphically the game looks pretty sharp.  The energy balls are all glowing and in flux like you’d expect them to be, and the explosions are pretty decent.  The backgrounds are a collection of nice space imagery with subtle movement in them.  Sound effects are basically what you’d expect for this type of game with this theme, but you get used to them pretty quickly.  There’s only one musical track, but it’s decent enough for a puzzle game.  Overall I would be almost as content without the sound, except that this is too slow paced of a game to not have any noise.

I really like Supernova Blast.  It’s a simple premise that can get quite challenging when the levels only have one or two hits to be solvable.  The game has an above average presentation, and with 250 levels to play through you shouldn’t run out of game for a few sittings.

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

[note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

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]

Reviewed Platform: iPhone
Device Used: iPod Touch 2nd Gen.
Software Type: Game
Developed By: Chris Mrazek

Invariably it seems these days that any puzzle game that requires you to push objects around a maze gets lumped into the Sokoban clone category. First of all, I’m pretty sure such games existed before the dawn of Sokoban, and second, Sokoban has the very specific goal of moving objects onto particular spaces on the playing board. While Fission Quest does have a bit of a feel of Sokoban, especially given that you can only push and not pull objects, it’s certainly a very different type of game. It’s also a good challenge for those who like puzzle games.

Beware The Ooze Below

In Fission Quest you play a nuclear technician trying to make your way through a power plant. To do so you must traverse 30 levels filled with pits, perils and lots of barrels (sorry, didn’t mean to go Dr. Seuss on you). Of course, I’d be pretty scared myself if a power plant were laid out like this, but let’s not let my merging memories of several years of Simpsons watching and working at a nuclear plant for a few months get the best of this review. To get through each level you must figure out the best way to position boxes and crates to either remove them from your path or use them to help create your path.

The interface is pretty simple. Arrows allow you to move your character forward, back, left and right. Technically, though, your character is always moving forward, so pressing any other direction will cause you to face that direction first before you start moving. The game is grid based, so a tap of the arrow will cause you to move one space in the selected direction, while holding the arrow will keep you moving until you let go. Movement does seem to be pretty precise in this game, so you don’t have to worry about letting go of an arrow and having your guy accidentally move more steps than required, inadvertently falling to his death. At least, this hasn’t happened to me yet. The default camera mode is to have the camera follow your twisting and turning, which is actually a bit jarring to me. I recently discovered, however, that an update allows you to lock the camera in place, which to me makes the game much more enjoyable. There is also an option to position the controls on the left, center or right sides of the screen, depending on what’s most comfortable for you. Note this only applies to the arrows – the rest of the options stay on the lower left corner of the screen.

It's Red Hot

You also have the option of pinching to zoom in and out on the board. This is nice in that it lets you get the “big picture” of your surroundings, but it’s often hard to visualize the various layers of a particularly tall 3D level when looking at it from a bird’s eye view. You can even freely rotate the view as long as you’re dragging anywhere on the screen besides the defined controls, but be cautious that you don’t actually catch one of the arrows by accident while you’re doing this (I’ve taken a fall several times due to this). Thankfully there’s an undo feature, even in death, but it would be nice to “lock in” a free look mode sort of like the Bobby Carrot series does. It would also be cool if the free look mode would allow you to see the entire level through panning, rather than just rotating around as much of the area as you’re zoomed in on. Again, this is one of the nice features that Bobby Carrot allows (sorry, I’ve been playing those games recently as well).

The graphics are decent, but nothing spectacular. Your character reminds of someone trying to audition for the part of an oompa-lompa from the new Chocolate Factory movie that was just too tall. The walls and floors of the environment have basic textures, and the boxes and barrels look alright. The sound effects work well enough, but there’s no ambiance other than what appears to be a howling wind to fill the gaps between noises. I suppose that’s to be expected given the environment you’re in, but the wind noise is annoying, and the only other option is to completely disable sounds, which makes everything seem a little too dead. There’s also no music, which adds to the overall bland atmosphere.

Graphics: 6
Sound: 4
Installation Ease: 10
Fun Factor: 7
Usability: 9
Documentation: 9
Adjustability: 6

Addon Packs: NO
Suitable For Young Kids: YES
Online Support: YES

CONS:
- No way to pan beyond current view
- “Free Roam” movement has jarring camera movement
- Audio elements are lacking

PROS:
- Decent, if not overly amazing graphics
- Challenging Puzzles
- 3D world adds depth to a common puzzle game style

OVERALL::
While not nearly as flashy as some of the puzzle games to arrive on the iPhone platform in the last few months, Fission Quest is a solid little puzzle game. The levels are challenging as you get further along in the game, and the 3D world adds a much needed new dimension to this type of puzzle game (sorry for the bad pun). Casual puzzle gamers probably won’t enjoy this title, but those seeking a game that requires you to think and plan should get plenty of enjoyment from Fission Quest.

Overall Rating: 7.3
Available Platforms: iPhone
App Store Link
App Store Link – Lite Version

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Wordsworth is a game quite similar to the Popcap classic Bookworm.  On the plus side it’s quite fun, has a professional appearance, and costs less than half of the price of Bookworm.  On the downside, the guy in the hat isn’t quite as charming as the worm from Bookworm.  I can live with the downside.

The basic premise is that you are presented with a grid of X by X tiles (where X can be a number between 4 and 7, configurable in the options).  You progress through the 30 levels by making words out of the letters that appear on the tiles.  You can drag your finger across letters to link them, in which case releasing your finger will clear a successfully formed word.  Or, if you like a bit more control, you can click each letter you want to link together.  In order to submit a successful word in this case you must click the check mark at the bottom of the screen.  The game ends when any of the following scenarios are met: time runs out (timed mode only), a timed tile expires, there are no more letters to be formed, or you beat all 30 levels.

Miss Me?

There are a nice amount of options in Wordsworth.  Add to that bonus tiles and buzzwords, and 3 different word lists to choose from, and there’s certainly plenty of variety to keep you entertained.  The controls are actually pretty well implemented.  There were times where I’d accidentally “overshoot” and link too many letters together when dragging my finger, but this is a minor quibble and is easily overcome by using the “tap a tile” method instead.

Graphically, Wordsworth looks pretty sharp.  The interface is well laid out, everything is easy to read (even on the biggest grid setting), and pretty much everything looks like it goes together.  I’m not a real big fan of the guy in the splash screen, and for some reason the layover of the status screen when transitioning between levels seems a bit cheesy to me, but otherwise I like the look.  The sound effects are good enough, though the riff that accompanies beating a level sounds more like a losing than winning sound.  The music is really good.  It has an almost magical quality about it, maybe like something you’d expect in the background of a movie about magicians or carnivals or something.  It’s actually quite relaxing.

Wordsworth might not have all the glitz of Bookworm, but it certainly will keep you entertained for quite some time.  If you like word games that have an almost “match 3″ feel about them, this is a good game for you.  If nothing else, there’s always a lite version that you can check out.

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

[Note: image courtesy of App Shopper]

My first review for the iPhone was Hydro Tilt, and my hypothesis was that Marble Madness with the control scheme employed in Hydro Tilt could quite possibly be the perfect iPhone game.  It stands to reason, then, that with the absence of Marble Madness, Marble Worlds 2 could claim that throne.  MW2 has enemies – or at least an enemy, the evil marble.  MW2 has a larger variety of obstacles than Hydro Tilt.  And, Marble Worlds has 100 different levels to explore.  Sounds like a winner to me!

The First Level

Unfortunately, the control scheme kills this game.  The accelerometer is almost unmanageable, so you won’t be using that unless you’re in confined spaces or the game tells you that you have to.  Sadly, the touch screen controls aren’t much better.  Movement is relative to the marble, so as long as your finger is southwest of the marble’s position, the marble will move down and to the left.  This becomes especially problematic when the marble is in any sort of enclosure where you can’t see it.  Also, there are some obstacles that require precise movements, which are very hard to achieve with the sensitive controls.  They really need to tweak the sensitivity a bit, or better yet give the user the ability to adjust it, and I’d much rather see on-screen arrows to control movement than their current “relative” scheme.

Graphically the game isn’t bad, though there doesn’t appear to be much of a face lift from the Pocket PC counterpart.  The images are bright and colorful, but they have a bit of a legoland feel without much detail.  The sound effects are actually decent and sometimes amusing, though for the most part don’t fit in with the game (I keep hearing those frogs, but I never see them!)  Sadly, there is no music in the game.

As it stands right now, I can’t recommend this game.  If they could tighten up the controls quite a bit it would certainly make an acceptable replacement for Marble Madness, but with the controls’ current state I’ve given up after only 2 levels.

Final Verdict: Not Recommended
Developer Page: Marble Worlds 2
App Store Link: here