Price: $2.99

Publisher: Fallen Tree Games

I’m embarrassed to say that there is a game on my iPhone that has sat there for months.  Literally.  I received it to review and it got accidentally thrown into a folder never to be seen again.  Until now.  Not only is that game worth playing but quite frankly, it’s fantastic.  I present to you, Quell.  An unbelievably relaxing puzzle game that is soothing, yet increasingly difficult.  Like any good puzzle game the gameplay mechanics are easy to learn but hard to master.  If I would have played this game right away, it would have easily been my favorite puzzle game of 2010.

The presentation including the sound, art and especially the music are top notch.  Diving further into the music specifically, it is seriously fantastic.  Like some of the best mood altering music I have ever heard in a game.  It immediately sets the tone of the game to a slow, rainy day where you are staying indoors and relaxing by a fire.  It is seriously impressive.

The actual mechanics of the puzzles are fantastic as well.  Your job is to slide a rain drop through obstacles throughout a given level.  The main crux of the issue is that you have to collect several pearls on each level and the game counts how many moves it takes to reach them.  Your job is to do it in as few moves as possible.  The game saves a record of how many moves each level takes and offers quite a few awards or achievements for meeting movement goals.  There are also a ton of levels in the game and you should easily get a few hours of enjoyment out of Quell.

There are a few objects that can slow you down from meeting your goal.  As the levels become more difficult, bushes will crop up in your path after crossing a path just once sometimes causing you to have to restart the game because choosing the wrong path made the puzzle impossible to beat.  Don’t worry though, if that happens, a friendly message pops up and lets you know.  If you are ever truly stuck, the awards you earned in previous stages can be used to unlock the entire level and move on.  I recommend not doing that.  ‘Cheating’ in Quell would only be cheating yourself. 

In summary, this game is relaxing, yet difficult enough, to cause you to think through each move.  The entire presentation is top notch.  I only wish I had seen this title earlier so I could tell you all about it.  Now that I have, get in a comfortable chair, load up the App Store and download Quell for $2.99.  You’ll be glad you did.

Overall Value for it’s $2.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $.99

Publisher: Runloop Ltd.

Reviewer: Josh Cox

Blockees is a fun and addicting puzzle based game where you must align blocks that are the same color by sliding them around the screen. The premise behind Blockees is quite simple yet very hard to master. Each level it a totally new challenge that can take awhile to beat.

Each level starts out with a grid playing area. This area will contain multiple blockees and a brush looking boarder.  The object is to eliminate the blockees by putting them in contact (touching sides, not corners). Once the blockees are touching they will disappear either ending the level are creating more room to eliminate the other blockees on the current level.

At the bottom of the screen there is a number that lets you know how many moves it should take you to complete each level. This number changes every time you make a move so be aware of this number at all times. If you finish the level within the allowed moves then you earn a star. Stars can be used on later levels to unlock hints. Believe me you will need stars. Some of the levels are tough. I got stuck on one so long that I had to quit playing for a while and come back to it. But just like any good game, I went back to it and kept playing.

There are five different colors of blockees: red, yellow, blue, gray, and rainbow. The gray blockees do not mix with any other blockees and the rainbow ones mix with all three of others. There is also a bomb character, he’s round so I feel uncomfortable calling him a blockee, but he blows up grays and bushes and freezes the red, yellow, and blue blockees.

There are 3 sets of levels, each set containing 25 levels. And if that wasn’t enough you can build your own levels and let others play them. And if that wasn’t enough you can download hundreds of other people levels. There really is no end to the amount of gameplay.

The graphics and audio are simple and vivid, but that fits the game very well. The colors pop and the audio is catchy. I think gamers of all ages will love Blockees. For the amount of fun and sheer gameplay, Blockees is a steal at $.99.

Overall Value for it’s $.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $4.99

Publisher: G5 Entertainment

Dive headfirst into a Romanian castle shrouded in wonder and mystery with the inquisitive and determined protagonist, Nelly, in G5 Entertainment’s latest title, Treasure Seekers II: The Enchanted Canvases. An amped up version of traditional hidden puzzle games, G5 takes this to the next level with a constantly developing storyline, hordes of puzzles, and a number of unique minigames. Sounds pretty enticing, right?

The second installment of Treasure Seekers dumps gamers right back into action, as Nelly’s overzealous brother, Tom has taken off on an adventure to find the Philosophers’ Stone. Of course, silly old Tom is now lost somewhere amongst the puzzles and possibly in grave danger, so Nelly strikes out into the castle to retrieve her lost sibling. Each canvas lays out a new scenario where players meet unique characters such as ghost pirates or genies that require your assistance. Whether you’re relighting an old lighthouse or scuba diving to recover lost sea treasure, Treasure Seekers II keeps gamers guessing as they try to outsmart minigames and unravel a number of tricky quandaries.

Everything from top to bottom in this game seems to have an enchanted, rustic feel to it, from the menus right on through to the individual puzzles. There isn’t a ton of animation and movement, which allows Treasure Seekers II to focus on creating highly appealing interactive backdrops which serve as the basis for most of the gameplay. While tapping around and searching for the next clue, fish and birds flutter by as clouds drift through the sky and the flames from a fire shoot up the chimney. Each canvas is completely different, creating a new visual treat for players as they progress through the content while trying to rescue Tom.

Coupled with the already attractive visual landscape is a diverse soundtrack which ebbs and flows with each of the different levels. Far better than some of the more repetitious audio featured by many other mobile titles, G5 did their best to transport people right into one of the magical canvases with a lush soundscape. Smaller accent effects signal correctly discovering a clue or necessary tool, such as a chime or metallic ping. The characters don’t speak, but the dialogue is kept concise enough to prevent Treasure Seekers II from turning into a reading exercise.

Being a hidden puzzle title, you can bet no one will be giving themselves a migraine over figuring out the controls with this one. Most of the game is done by simply tapping or dragging objects on the correct location, and zooming in or out works the same way it does on your iPhone. The only minor inconvenience is during one or two of the minigames where some areas are just too small to press without touching the wrong item, creating some unnecessary repetition.

With boatloads of constantly evolving and changing content, as well as a pleasing auditory and visual experience, Treasure Seekers II is a solid pick, especially for fans of the genre. The $4.99 price tag might turn a few people off, but it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between this and a $0.99 app, especially with the length of the story. Don’t wait too long, Tom needs your help!

Overall Value for it’s $4.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Price: $.99

Publisher: swenGames

Remember I Spy and Where’s Waldo? Of course you do. Enter swenGames, our tour guides through a digitized experience of the hidden object puzzles which used to frequent elementary schools across the country. Offering up a smattering of items such as birds, animals, cartoon characters, clocks, and more, each stage lays out 20 targets to pick out amongst a horde of decoys which continually play tricks on the eyes.

Set up in a format which appears similar to iPhone menus, FoundIt offers eight different levels of hidden item hunting. Players can rack up point totals based on their speed while the app keeps track of time and score for each puzzle, allowing the truly dedicated to improve upon their previous marks on each subsequent try. Unlike some of the book based puzzles this is based on, FoundIt presents the objects in a jumble on a solid colored background, which can require diligent scanning in order to track down those last remaining pesky stragglers.

With the exception of the flags and American state abbreviation levels, all of the sprites are drawn up in a fairly cartoony fashion, ranging from sharks and seahorses to monkeys and lobsters. Gamers can zoom in and out on the playing area as they search for the next lion eating a pizza, while enlarging the current target in the bottom left corner of the screen. Point and time totals are displayed in a bar across the top, and a collapsible list from the bottom right contains all of the needed items.

Throughout menu screens and gameplay, a quirky, catchy soundtrack streams from the speakers. While there’s essentially only one song, the sound is great background music for the game, but can also be switched off when gamers grow weary of the melody. Smaller sound effects also dot the experience, such as clicking on menu options, a pleasant chime after a correct choice, and a grating buzz following a wrong selection.

Control is basically as simple as using an iPhone, so if you’re comfortable with flicking, tapping, and zooming, playing FoundIt is an absolute snap. The game did crash on one occasion when the control stopped responding, but otherwise my time spent hunting down flags and clocks went pretty smoothly.

Initially it seemed like there wasn’t a great depth of content from FoundIt, but each puzzle allows gamers a reset option, which generates a new list of items, keeping the action coming for a mere 99 cents. Obviously, if you’re not enthralled by hidden object titles, this probably won’t be changing your outlook, but this is still a pretty entertaining app at the next best price to free.

Overall Value for it’s $.99 price point

Overall: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Controls: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars