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Flipping Dice: Don't flip out
Flipping Dice(free) is a Match 3 type of game where players flip 24 dice, trying to get up to six of the same numbers in a row. Players can tap on individual dice or tap in the middle of two dice to flip the die and reveal a different number. Flipping Dice is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1 or later. With 24 dice, it feels like there are too many dice to keep track of, which leads to a less than stellar gameplay experience. It is easy for players to feel overwhelmed by the number of dice they have to manage to score higher points. For this reason, Flipping Dice feels kinda slow even with the strict time limit of 77 seconds. Players don't feel as much pressure to get higher scores within the time limit, as they are more concerned with the amount of information they have to sort through. In addition to this, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of rewarding players visually for their successes. This is seen especially when the timer hits zero and the tiles become grayed out as the only real indicator of success is in the form of a small score counter in the top left corner. Players are left wondering what it means to finish the match, whether they are doing well or not is a bit obscure. Another oddity about the end of matches is that there isn't a replay button displayed on the screen as typically seen in other games. This further confuses players and makes them unsure of what to do next. A A small reward for players is the inclusion of achievements and leaderboards which encourages them to keep playing in order to climb the ranks and show off their achievements. However, this does not feel substantial enough to warrant continual playing of Flipping Dice. There are a few UI elements that need some fixing as the sizing of the buttons on the screen are rather small which makes it hard to accurately tap these buttons. From the home menu, the achievements button has a spelling error and the text in general could use a quick look to make sure it matches the style of the other buttons. Another UI related problem in Flipping Dice is that the help button is grayed out during each match. This is confusing as players don't want to wait for the match to end before getting help. Flipping Dice is free on the App Store and is not recommended as the overall gameplay experience is a bit lacking which takes away from its Match 3 foundation.
Tower of Elements 2 funded on Kickstarter
Now that Tower of Elements 2 has matched its funding goal of $10,000 for release on PC, Max and Linux platforms, we can start preparing for a different kind of war. Claiming victory in its battles will rely more on a player's organizational and leading skills than how many experience points they've poured into an attack attribute. Tower of Elements 2 will be a hybrid of real-time strategy and puzzle elements, asking you to juggle the direction of your capital while pummeling opponents with match-3 elemental spells. Players will organize the elemental tiles within 50 towers across 10 regions in the game, casting spells down lanes toward opponents depending on wherever a match is made. Towers won't all be designed the same way, however - while one may equip you with two long rows of tiles, the next might have a smaller, diamond-shaped space for the elemental ammo. Some towers will contain special tiles that are locked or frozen into place too, so players will need to get creative. Decisions made in the capital will determine the qualities a player's followers display. Depending on its leadership, the capital will reflect one of four culture traits; Martial, Druidic, Republic and Elemental. Tower of Elements 2's pitch page also explains that capital will allow players to "construct and upgrade buildings, grow your population, research spells, construct implements of war, recruit elite troops and much more." At the time of this writing, Tower of Elements 2 has gathered $4,278 more than developer Frogdice's funding goal, but stretch goals are "coming soon" should you be interested in helping fund its development. The funding campaign will conclude on January 5. Tower of Elements 2 is planning on a February release for backers, with a public release following "a month or two later." Frogdice's previous project, Dungeon of Elements, was successfully funded in June and was released on schedule.
Daily iPhone App: Alien Hive might help evolve your brain
I am not sure whether I like Alien Hive or not, and I'll explain why in just a second. But last week at GDC, whenever I had a free moment to play games on my iPhone, I found myself pulling out Alien Hive and playing yet again. So I think that's more than enough reason to recommend it to you here. The game was described to me as a match-3, and I guess it kind of is, in only that you need to match three items of a certain type to earn points. But in practice, it's much more like Triple Town than Bejeweled. This is a slower-paced, thinking man's game, where you need to make your moves more carefully. You get a board with various tiles on it and one empty space, and you can slide tiles horizontally or vertically, trying to make a match to evolve your tiles up into the next type. Tiles fall into the categories of plants or aliens, and matching up plant tiles earns you more moves, which allows you to keep your gaming going along. I'm not sure I like Alien Hive yet because apparently I'm not very good at it. The aliens on the board start out as little eggs, and matching them together evolves them up into more and more complex creatures, with you eventually unlocking a full hatchery of different alien types. But despite all of my playtime, I haven't unlocked a single higher-level alien. I do feel like I'm progressing in terms of finding matches and lining them up, but apparently I haven't even really started up the game's progression curve. Part of the problem is probably that the game involves "boosts," where you can spend a certain amount of earned currency to give you items or abilities that help you move things along. But I hate boosts as a player, so I really haven't spent any money on them, and that could be what's holding me back. At any rate, despite my issues with boosts as a mechanic and despite my inability to actually evolve any aliens, I'm enjoying Alien Hive -- I like that the game requires some thought despite the relatively simple mechanics. Hopefully sooner or later here I'll figure out the trick to evolving my aliens (and hopefully it won't just be to spend more money on boosts). If you want to join me, Alien Hive is available for free.
Ron Gilbert's next game, Scurvy Scallywags, is a pirate match-3 RPG
Ron Gilbert left Double Fine earlier this month with intentions to delve into all those games "left to be designed," but first he's working on a mobile game with Deathspank co-creator Clayton Kauzlaric. It's called Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG.Scurvy Scallywags is, in its simplest terms, a match-three game. But it has a twist: After a match, rather than the pieces falling straight down, the board collapses in the direction you swipe. It's an intuitive way to play, Gilbert writes on his blog."An odd side effect of doing this was you could move pieces around the board," he says. "So unlike Puzzle Quest – and just about every other match-three RPG that sprang up after it – in Scurvy Scallywags you actually move your hero/pirate around the board and position her/him next to enemies to do battle. It creates this new layer to the matching that is a lot of fun."Gilbert hopes to have Scurvy Scallywags out on iOS in the "next month or so," with plans to port it to Android later on. After that, he'll probably start working on every other game that hasn't yet been designed.
Daily iPad App: Letz: The Story of Zed does match 3 right
Letz is a game that doesn't necessarily excel in its mechanics -- it's a match 3 game, basically, though there is a fun addition in the form of a word-making challenge as well. But where Letz really shines is in the icing. The sounds and graphics on this one are just pure sugary pleasure -- the kind of great bleeps and bloops that you hear on the floor of a casino when everyone around you is winning lots of money. Ok, so maybe it's not for everyone, but I am completely charmed by Letz's cotton candy graphics and all the sounds the game makes. Match 3 isn't that complicated a game form, obviously, and that's what you're doing here (though you can collect letters as you match tiles, and then match those letters up into words, including one story word per stage in the campaign as you play through it). But despite the simplicity, the game's big board allows you to chain tiles and shapes to your heart's content, sometimes getting up to a minute or two of dings, rings and rewards for just the right match. An XP system with plenty of objectives also keeps the action interesting, and the whole package is just excellently charming throughout the game's huge amount of content. Letz (full title, The Story of Zed) is a bargain for just US$1.99 on the iPad. It's a very well-polished game that's almost excessively rewarding, and match 3 aficionados especially will have a great time with it. If you've yet to be convinced, there's a lite version to try out as well.
Daily iPhone App: 10000000 is a great, complex game with a strange name
Some games pare down a core idea to something really simple and elegant, cutting everything else away until one main bit of gameplay shines through. Canabalt is probably the perfect example of that recently -- it's just one core mechanic, done very, very well. But other games go the other direction: they add on system after system after system, and the art isn't in cutting things away, but it's in joining things together, juggling all kinds of balls and knives and torches, and yet still keeping the gameplay accessible and interesting. The recently released (and strangely named) 10000000 is of the second kind: It's a game with a ton of different things going on, but its charm is that even with so much happening, you can still "get it". Essentially, the game is a match-3 title: You can slide various tiles around, trying to match up three or more of them together. But it's also got a very in-depth RPG layer on top of it -- your character runs across the top of the screen, fighting monsters, unlocking chests, and trying to repair your castle (earning up to 10,000,000 points, which is where the game's name comes from). The gameplay's balanced between what's happening with your character at the top of the screen, and the effects of what you're matching on the tiles below. There's also loot, and skills, and a meta-mechanic that has you repairing doors to open up stages, and even bosses to fight as you race through timed dungeons. It's complicated, and the biggest problem with 10000000 is that it never backs down -- you need to keep a lot of systems moving at the same time, and it's not always clear where your attention should go. But there is a nice tutorial, and the stages do smartly ramp you up in difficulty, so the RPG elements keep you feeling rewarded, even when you lose track of what you're doing. The excellent old-school graphics and music deserve a mention as well -- they look really great and retro, and the aesthetic adds a lot to the old-school arcade feel. 10000000 is a really interesting title; it could probably have been pared down just a little bit, but the game's designers do deserve praise for including what seems like every system they could think of, and juggling them as adeptly as possible. The game is available right now as a universal build for $1.99.
Daily iPhone App: Elenints matches Triple Town's planning with a few new tricks
Red Fly Studio is the group behind last year's great Inertia: Escape Velocity. Its latest title, Elenints, is more abstract. The name "Elenints" might come from a combination of the words "elements" and "integers". It's is a puzzle game where you place pieces on a board, trying to match up three of a kind and combine those into increasingly complex elements. The gameplay is similar to Triple Town, which I love. Both games require you to carefully plan how you'll place pieces to make combos. But while Triple Town simply blocks off space the more you play, Elenints is more dynamic. As "creepers" spawn, you can block them with an Elenint, which means that if you can change up your plan in time, you can prevent bears from ever showing up. That innovation alone makes Elenints worth a look, and there's also a sort of tutorial/puzzle mode that offers a nice twist on Triple Town's gameplay. Elenints is available for free on the App Store right now.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Matchlings
Ah, match-3. It's now a tried and true form, and if you're like me, just the idea of matching three gems, shapes, or what have you is enough to keep you interested in a game. Enter Villian's Matchlings, a match-3 game where you're matching actual characters, of all things. The gimmick here is that (much like Snood, actually), the characters are alive even as you match them, which means that they'll not only make faces and react to you as you play, but you can also double-tap them for various special abilities and power-ups. There's nothing super new here -- it's match-3 through and through, and it'd be even nice if Villian, a company that really went out on a limb with their first game, the FPS for iOS Archetype, tried something a little different or new with this one. But you can't really go wrong with match-3, and that was probably their thinking with this one. If you want something original, you'll have to look elsewhere. But if you just can't get enough of match-3 (a genre that seems perfectly made for iOS and this platform), Matchlings is available on the iPhone for US 99 cents.
TUAW's Daily App: Liqua Pop
EA's latest game on the App Store is called Liqua Pop. It's an original puzzle game that has you popping liquid bubbles of the same color in order to send a little toad on the side of the screen to the top. The presentation in this one is very well done -- the music is cool and clear, and the graphics are shiny and very (wait for it...) fluid. The bubbles show up quickly, and eventually bugs appear in the bubbles and add a little complication to the mix. But overall, the gameplay is pretty simple, and you get into a nice rhythm of building up bubbles and shaking the device to pop them. Unfortunately, the game's thin on content -- there's just one mode, and while there are plenty of levels to play through, it'd be nice to see a little variety to the gameplay. More of an issue is that there's no Game Center integration at all. You can share scores via Facebook, but really, especially with EA publishing, developers iChromo should have taken the time to include Game Center. Hopefully that and the other omissions will be fixed in a future update. Liqua Pop is US$1.99 on the App Store right now, and I can recommend you check it out at that price, though I wouldn't blame you for waiting for the next EA sale to see if it drops down to a buck. If you're good on games for now, that might be your best bet.
TUAW's Daily App: Rise of Atlantis HD
I really enjoyed (and still occasionally play) Russian developer Playrix's Call of Atlantis on the iPhone. It's a pretty straightforward match-3 game that nevertheless has a lot of appeal. Somehow, the pieces (including some weird-shaped boards), certain items that you need to release from the grid to match up and some special power-ups are tuned just right so that I find it more fun than most games of the type -- it's almost as great as PopCap's own Bejeweled. And now, the company has released the next game in the series, Rise of Atlantis as an HD version on the iPad. It's worth checking out, especially if you're in the mood for an iPad-specific match-3 experience. The graphics and colors are vibrant, and like Call of Atlantis, there's a very loosely connected "story" mode to go through with 77 different levels to beat. And you can even go back and beat them for a high score if you're into that. There's no multiplayer or achievements or anything, unfortunately, but then again, a solid match-3 game is just a game where you sit on the couch and flip little icons to match them up by yourself -- and is there any better device for a game like that than the iPad? I think not. The Mac version of the game was spotlighted by Apple, and this one should be popular as well. You can try out the lite version for free, or pick up the full iPad game for a launch sale price of US $4.99.
TUAW's Daily App: Tripolar
Tripolar makes a big point of saying that it's not a match-3 game, and though the grid looks similar to that matching genre, it's really not. But it is a puzzle game. The idea is that you have pieces coming in on top of the board, and touching anywhere on the grid will insert that piece and delete any like-colored pieces around it. Any pieces of a different color will switch to the next color in order. It sounds a little confusing, but in practice, it works pretty well. There's a timed mode, which challenges you to score as many points as possible in a certain amount of time, and a puzzle mode, which requires you to clear 50 different boards by putting the right pieces in the right places. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a little simple. Because you're dropping one piece in at a time, there are no real opportunities for building up combos, which is where the real fun is in these types of puzzle games. And unfortunately, there's no Game Center integration or leaderboards, though there is a high-score board for your phone itself. It is well-made and entertaining for what it is, and it's worth the US$0.99 price if this kind of game appeals to you.
TUAW's Daily App: The Screetch
The Screetch is a great game with a funny name. At its heart, it's a match three game; you want to match three of a kind for a certain round gem while you're constantly dropping them from above (Tetris style). The game's namesake is where things get slimy, though. The Screetch is constantly "infecting" gems that are dropped onto the board, and you can only clear it out by matching three gems and putting the slimy, oily dude into a flask. It sounds complicated, but of course, it starts out simple and builds up from there. As the game progresses, the Screetch moves faster, requiring you to drop gems in the right places quickly. There are also lightning gems that will clear out whole lines of the board and quite a few levels to ramp up the difficulty as you play along. The Screetch element adds a fun, new twist to the standard match three gameplay, and the graphics are pretty well polished to boot. The game is available on the App Store right now for US $2.99, and the addition of online league play and trophies extends the playability a little bit. If you're a fan of match three games or just want a fun thrill to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time, check it out.
TUAW's Daily App: Shifters
Shifters is a fun little match-3 game with a "twist" -- instead of switching colored blocks to match three of a kind, you rotate them in sets of four. That changes up the strategy a bit, as the patterns look a little different from the standard Bejeweled-type game (the shifting mechanic is obviously more similar to Bejeweled Twist) but the gameplay is still simple and fun. Shifters is presented in levels, too, with each level providing a separate goal to meet, from matching a certain number of shifters to meeting a score within a certain time. Is it simple? Yes -- if you want anything more than some empty tapping and silly faces, you won't find it in Shifters. But the mechanic is entertaining enough to while away a few minutes of waiting in line or for the bus, and the 99 cent price is worth it as long as your expectations are low.
TUAW's Daily App: Call of Atlantis
I am really looking forward to Puzzle Quest 2, since I was such a fan of the first game on XBLA. But until that comes out, Call of Atlantis is a polished gem-matcher that combines match-3 gameplay with a little bit of story and adventure. I believe it started out as a PC game, but you wouldn't be able to tell -- the graphics look like they were designed for the iPhone, and the gameplay fits perfectly on a mobile device. If you've played any match-3 games, you already know the score here -- switch icons on a board to match up three of the same kind, and those will disappear, bringing more into play. But Call of Atlantis mixes things up a bit by providing items to grab -- the idea on each stage is to get certain parts of a larger item (or special powerup items) to the bottom of the screen, and off the board. Complete all the pieces of the main item and the level is over. Matching four or five of a kind will power up a meter that will help clear the board out, and collecting powerup items like Bombs will clear out part of a board for you as well. It's simple gameplay, but a strategy quickly unfolds -- do you clear that enticing five of a kind, or go for the quick three right below the item you need to collect? And while there is an overarching story of Gods and Atlantis, complete with art and voiceover, it's just icing on the cake of sweet, sweet gameplay. Call of Atlantis is a steal at 99 cents -- it's a budget title that feels and plays like a much more expensive game.
TUAW's Daily App: Uprising
Match-3 games are pretty easy to come by, so presentation is the really the qualifier -- does it do something a little more interesting than the average block-matcher? On that level, Uprising succeeds. While the core gameplay is pretty common (you pull blocks around a board, trying to match them out in sets of three or more before they reach the top of the screen -- it's very similar to Xbox Live's great Poker Smash, if you've ever played that game), the treat is in the presentation. The blocks pause for a second as you match them, adding a little bit of extra strategy to your timing, and the simple graphics and sounds add up to make a stylish and intriguing match-3 experience. There is a bit of a hitch in the controls -- the touchscreen makes it a little confusing to see where the blocks are going, or which blocks you're moving sometimes, but the advantage is that multitouch works, so if you're careful about it, you can move more than one block at a time. That's something I've never seen in any match-3 game before, so Uprising is definitely worth the download. It's currently on sale for free as of this writing, too, so go check it out on the App Store.
Man 'beats' Bejeweled 2 after playing for 3 years
digg_url = 'http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/30/man-beats-bejeweled-2-after-playing-for-3-years/'; We admire all forms of dedication -- even the absolutely insane forms. A California steel contractor named Mike Leyde recently displayed one such type of persistence by playing a single round of his casual game of choice, Bejeweled 2, for 2,205 hours and 51 minutes over the course of three years. In that time, he collected 4,872,229 gems, earning the game's highest calculable score, 2,147,483,647, at which point the score display got really perplexed and went blank. (Check out a video of Mike's achievement after the jump.) According to PopCap, Leyde is the first person to ever "beat" Bejeweled 2. That's one way of looking at it, we suppose. Another way of looking at it is to say that everyone else who's ever played Bejeweled 2 is a quitter. Yeah, that's right. Why don't you follow through with something for once in your life? Sheesh.
iPhone It In: bitFLIP
I first heard about iPhone pseudo-puzzler bitFLIP from the game's developer, Metamoorephosis Games owner (and JPAG member) Josh Hernandez. I'd be remiss to not mention upfront the hesitation with which I approached reviewing said game for iPhone It In, given the development source being a Joystiq reader and podcast listener. It was a convenient delight then when I first loaded the game up on my 3G and had a thoroughly enjoyable time playing it. Though a truly egregious boot time put me off from playing bitFLIP during my every free moment over the two or so weeks I spent with the game (that time was reserved for Canabalt), I was still anxious to play it when my free time was longer than a scant few moments. Mixing interesting puzzle mechanics, great music, a truly unique (and often beautiful) visual presentation, and a variety of gameplay options, I can confidently say that there's more than enough enjoyable gaming to be had here to warrant your two bucks. %Gallery-78849%
THQ Wireless releases Chop Sushi to the App Store
Chop Sushi is a brand new game from our friends at THQ in the App Store that combines a love of the Japanese raw fish dish with an interesting twist on the kind of gem-matching battle gameplay that Puzzle Quest made famous (and addictive) a few years ago. It's still a matching game, except you're matching wasabi and rolls instead of gems and skulls, and instead of choosing one gem to switch another, you choose a piece and then swipe it to the end of a row or column, making a match anywhere on the board (as the rest of the pieces fill in for the one you moved). It's hard to explain, but easy to pick up, and tough to master -- the different movements make this one worth a look even if you've played Puzzle Quest or any of its spiritual successors 'till exhaustion. Like other match-3 RPGs out there, there's both an adventure and a quick battle mode, as well as a challenge mode where you've got to match everything on the board together until it's all gone, so there's plenty of gameplay to go around. And the "slide" instead of "switch" mechanic keeps things fresh enough that you'll be looking for lots of new ways to make matches while playing. Chop Sushi is definitely worth a look -- it's in the App Store right now for $2.99.
