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Get Your Puzzle Fix On The iPhone |
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Written by Eric Meister
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Wednesday, 09 December 2009 08:52 |
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Puzzle games abound in the iTunes App Store. That fact is well established. However, which ones deserve your hard-earned cash? We recently took a look at the offerings and have chosen five new iPhone puzzlers that are worth your dollar. Here are our findings.
by EricMeister
Puzzle games abound in the iTunes App Store. That fact is well established. However, which ones deserve your hard-earned cash? We recently took a look at the offerings and have chosen five new iPhone puzzlers that are worth your dollar. Here are our findings.
Cross Fingers dares players to rearrange wooden shapes to cover a dark background. Shapes can be dragged into place one by one. Two styles of shapes are present, light colored wood and red wood. Red wood pieces bring some difficulty as that cannot stay in place without being help there. If let go of, they will slide back to their previous position. Players are required to hold these red pieces in place while moving other pieces around them. Hence, the app Cross Fingers gets its name. You must twist your fingers to hold the red pieces while arranging the light wooden shapes around them.
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, by IUGO Mobile Entertainment, is a puzzle game that contains 60 levels of buildings just waiting to be destroyed. Presented in a chalkboard fashion, buildings are arranged with only their support beams showing. Players must destroy the building in each level by using dynamite or blast bombs. Of course, it is harder than it seems for there is a horizontal dotted line that the resulting rubble must reside below. In the end, a letter grade is awarded according to Explosion Points, Height Bonus, a Difficulty Bonus, and an Unused Bomb Bonus. A total payout it given in each level determined by these bonuses. Obtaining an A+ grade is super difficult and will require a lot of time tinkering with bomb placement. As Implode progresses, difficulty ensues as no-bomb-placement beams are introduced.
Famous puzzle creator Dr. Knizia, has released his latest iPhone creation in the form of Monumental, a Mayan themed game. Players must arrange stones within a pair of 3 x 4 grids. Stones, which are randomly presented, must be placed in either of these grids with the goal of making matches. These stones are categorized by color , symbol, and the number of symbols on their faces. As an example of gameplay, players attempt to have three stones that match color, symbol, and number of symbols in the same row. This would generate the highest score. However, this is a rare case. Points can be awarded even if only the colors, symbols, or number of symbols match though. An identical pair of stones in a row can also award points, even if the third stone doesn't match any characteristic. Players must be aware of broken stones too as these can only be matched by colors.
If you're into word puzzle games, you might be into Wordigo, a new app by RiverEdge Game Company. Wordigo combines word creation with a hectic seven minute time limit. Unique to itself, Wordigo determines where you can build words and limits each board to a descending seven minute clock. This keeps gameplay both quick and challenging. Wordigo contains eight puzzle boards, each presenting horizontal and vertical word arrangements. Think of a partial Scrabble board with several empty areas. The point of the game is to cleverly build words using the randomly generated letter tiles. Only upon completion of one word path, can players move on to the next. Scoring can be positively influenced by ingenious vowel placement.
These are just a few of the latest puzzle games in the iPhone App Store that caught our attention. Whether you choose one or all of them, we feel each boasts a handsome interface and gameplay elements that will satisfy puzzle fanatics the world over.
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