The Best New Puzzlers For The iPhone And iPod Touch
To be sure, the iTunes App Store is full of tantalizing puzzle offerings. Whether they are of the Tetris-model or a simple match-three mind bender, most display some level of interest to iPhone users looking for a challenge. Let's take a look at five new puzzlers that caught our eye.
Cross Fingers utilizes a simple premise: rearrange the light-colored wooden shapes to cover the dark background space. Shapes are moved simply by dragging them into place. There are two types of shapes: light wooden pieces and red wooden pieces. The red pieces offer a unique challenge, as they do not stay where they are placed, but rather slide back to their original position. You will be required to move and hold these pieces in temporary positions to facilitate moving other pieces around them. It is this element that bore the name Cross Fingers, as you are bound to get your fingers tangled as you attempt to hold multiple red pieces in place while sliding the wooden pieces around the gameboard.
Pocketball is built on the Box2D physics engine. In this game, players start with balls that drop at predefined points, and they have to fall into colored pockets. Draw ropes between pegs, which bounce the balls at different angles according to gravity. To complicate things, there are obstacles carefully placed to stump you: bombs that destroy nearby balls, gravity wells, and arrows that push balls in a direction.
Implode contains 60 levels of buildings, just begging to be reduced to rubble. Each level presents you with the drawing of a building on a chalkboard, with only the support beams visible. You are also given a limited number of bundles of dynamite or blast bombs. These explosives must be placed upon the support beams in a configuration that, when detonated, will cause the building to crumble upon itself, with the highest point of the inevitable pile of rubble below an artificial dotted line. If you are unable to drop the building below the line, you fail and must retry the level. If you succeed, you receive a letter grade (just like in school) and a point total, comprised of Explosion Points, a Height Bonus, an Unused Bomb Bonus, and a Difficulty Bonus. Each of these is converted into dollar amounts, for a total payout in each level. Achieving an A+ on any given level is quite a challenge that will require much tweaking of explosive placement. Progressing through the game will expose you to new challenges, such as beams upon which no bombs can be placed or structures supported by a surprising number of beams, making them harder to bring down.
Dr. Knizia's latest puzzle Monumental takes place in a Mayan setting, with a pair of 3 x 4 grids. A solid column separates the grids. This column fills with rectangular stones, which must be shuttled either left or right into the grids. Each stone has a distinct color and number of symbols upon its face. The goal is to fill rows on either side of the center column that match as many distinctive features as possible. Ideally, you would want to have three red stones with one bird on each, for example. This would earn an excellent score for matching colors, symbols, and number of symbols. Of course, it will be rare to match across all three elements. If you can place stones with the same symbols in a row, even if these are a blue, red, and yellow stone, or two stones with two birds and one stone with three birds, these still qualify as symbol matches. You also score points if you match an identical pair in a row, regardless of what is contained on the third stone. Broken stones without symbols will appear, too. These can only match by color.
Wordigo is a unique word puzzle game for sale on the App Store by RiverEdge Game Company. Combining creative word development and a fierce seven minute time limit, Wordigo aims to be the word game players will keep coming back to. Unlike other word building games, Wordigo prescribes where you can create certain words and limits each game with a strict descending seven minute clock. Eight puzzle boards are offered, each designed with horizontal and vertical paths for words. Think of a partial cross-word puzzle with several word paths and empty areas. The goal is to construct words using randomly generated letter tiles. Players can only move on to a new path once the previous path is complete. Scoring is based on clever vowel placement.
We hope our review of some of the latest and greatest puzzle games give you an idea of what the App Store has to offer. These are simply five of the puzzlers that caught our eye. Regardless of your choice of one or all, we feel you'll enjoy each puzzle's unique characteristics.
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