Search Results for: label/Puzzle/index.html

Ever since Angry Birds became one of the most popular casual arcade/puzzle games in the AppStore, many, many companies have been trying to duplicate that type of all ages, accessible to everyone while still being challenging type of gameplay. Big Blue Bubble, however, has pretty much got it down to a science. With their previous releases of Burn The Rope, BTR; World, and Paper Munchers, they have definitely figured out exactly what it takes to make an addictive casual arcade game with just enough puzzle elements to keep it challenging and fun for 5 minute gamer as well as the more serious gamer. Their latest release, Fling A Thing, is yet another display of those finely tuned gameplay mechanics that keep gamers of all sorts coming back for more.

You’ll be able to control one of 5 different “Things”, 4 of which need to be unlocked, by pulling back and flinging them upwards, collecting as many bubbles as you can. There are also 3 different environments for you to play in, and 2 of these need to be unlocked. So you’ll start out the game with 1 thing and 1 environment to play in. However, the unlockable characters do not have any special abilities, the different environments only really change the look of the game. As you play, you’ll earn stars which you can use to unlock the characters and levels, as well as upgrade some items in the shop.

Fling A Thing is a game that can be played quickly, snagging bubbles quickly, while using a couple flings for a couple bubbles, or you can wait, and be patient, as usually, the bubbles will eventually line up, making them easy to grab with one fling of your character. This is where the puzzle elements come in, because even though the game can be played by a pre-schooler, it can also become pretty difficult to get as high as you can even for the well rounded gamer. Moving up the GameCenter or OpenFeint leader boards will require lots of patience, and well timed flings. Also, the higher you make it in the game, the more often stars will appear on the screen, meaning you’ll be able to unlock everything in the game sooner. There is also a little mini-game where you can feed your Thing, but it only gets you 3 stars at a time, so there’s not really a lot of incentive to play it. If you don’t want to wait to unlock items, you can purchase more stars via IAP.

Some players have complained about the lack of directional flinging aloud when you end up landing in a corner. However, you can bounce yourself off of the sides of the screen, so if you treat the levels like a pool table, you’ll be able to bounce your character off of the walls, collecting more bubbles with a nicely positioned and timed fling. The graphics, animations, sounds, controls, gameplay, Big Blue Bubble has done an amazing job creating a game that’s accessible, fun, and as challenging as you want to make it, for every type of gamer. It would be nice to see more game modes added, or different abilities given to the different characters, but the price being only $0.99, it’s a great buy, especially considering how much content there is, as well as the endless replayabilty and online support. If you’re looking for a game that you can play in a little 5 minute session, or come back to and be rewarded for taking your time, Fling A Thing is highly recommended.

Fling A Thing gets a score of 9 out of 10.

Links;

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fling-a-thing/id453089936?mt=8

Website – http://www.bigbluebubble.com/

Version Reviewed; V1.0

Reviewed Using; 4th GEN iPod Touch, iOS 4.3.3

We mentioned in an earlier review that the iDevices, with their option for tilting controls, have opened up another little world for game development and genre expansion. Here we have another example of a genre expanded by these tilt controls, ball rollers. Escape From Cyborgia is a new addition the genre, developed by Maniac Dreamers.

First off, the graphics, like most other great ball rollers, are very immersive, drawing you into the dark world full of hazards and obstacles. The animations for all the moving objects, liquids, steams, and fires in throughout the game are also done very nicely. Coupled with the awesome music, great physics, and ability to tilt the camera by swiping on the screen you can see the levels from different angles, the developers have created an amazing atmosphere, making Escape From Cyborgia a game that you’ll experience just as much as you’ll play. There is also a story that is accessible from the main menu, which does add to the experience and feel of the game if you decide to take the time to read it. It’s pretty interesting finding out why you’re trying to “escape from Cyborgia.”

The controls and UI in Escape From Cyborgia are very tight, and nicely laid out. You can adjust the calibration at any time in the main, or pause menus, as well as the tilt sensitivity. There are 3 buttons on the bottom right, and 3 on the bottom left corners of the screen. On the left, you can pause, go back to your last planted checkpoint, or reset your checkpoint to the beginning of the level. On the right, you can slow down the timer, requiring 1,500 points, set a new checkpoint, requiring 1,000 points, or enter the birds eye view of the level, which you are able to zoom in and out of as well as swipe and scroll around in. You can also swipe the screen at any point while playing the game to tilt the camera at a different angle, seeing if the pathways are slanted up or down, or maybe see if a path is accessible by seeing the set-up at a different angle.

For Maniac Dreamers first iOS release, Escape From Cyborgia is a very immersive addition to the ball roller genre. The only cons I can see is that there is no online integration, so there’s less drive to go back and replay levels with the hopes of bettering your score or ranking. Also, the level select screen always starts on level 0, so you will always need to scroll through the levels to find the one you last completed. There are also some sections on the paths, in the first couple levels, that have slight tilts on them. These slight tilts are almost impossible to see, even while tilting the camera. To make it over these slanted areas, players will need to tilt their devices to a pretty uncomfortable position. When you finally do make it past the slanted area, your ball will almost always go flying across the path. This isn’t too big of a deal, because the levels that do have these slants are only in the beginning, and there’s guard-rails on the path-ways, so you will not fling your ball onto the floor or into the green goo, but it is kind of strange that these sections only appear in the beginning of the game, and that more was not done to make them visible. Aside from that, which really isn’t anything to seriously complain about, and nothing that could not be fixed in an update, Escape From Cyborgia is a very well made, with skillfully thought out levels and textures. $2.99 for this Universal game is a solid price.

Escape From Cyborgia gets a score of 8 out of 10.

Links;

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/escape-from-cyborgia/id464741977?mt=8

Website – http://maniacdreamers.com/

Burn The Rope: Worlds is the sequel to the very popular Burn The Rope, by Big Blue Bubble (also responsible for Paper Munchers, City Of Thieves, Thumpies, the Fighting Fantasy series, and more). In Worlds, there’s more of the same great gameplay that made the original so popular, which is great, because companies that change up gameplay too much in their sequels, trying to find a new gimmick, generally upset the previous games fans. Big Blue Bubble has taken the approach of, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, expand on it”, and we really couldn’t be happier about this decision.

Fans of the original Burn The Rope will feel right at home when starting up BTR: Worlds. The controls work the same, rotating your device to keep the flame pointing upwards, but with better handling of the corners on each rope, which is a great addition, because there‘s more turns than ever in Worlds. You can also touch the screen to increase the speed of the flame. You’ll burn designs made of rope, trying to burn more than 60 percent of the shapes to move on. There’s also the bugs that change the flame’s color. Big Blue Bubble has added more of these bugs. There’s now fire bugs that when hit with a flame, will explode, causing everything in it’s radius to burn up, and sending multiple flames out in every direction, electric bugs, that when hit, will connect to another electric bug, and burn everything in-between the two, and more.

Along with new bugs, new levels, and new mechanics, there’s bonus rounds, which come into play every 4 levels. In these bonus rounds, you’ll get to try and burn as many bugs as you can in a certain amount of time, giving you a time bonus for burning them all before time runs out. These bonus rounds do not effect your score on the game, and are more for fun, and adding to the gameplay. There’s also a new mode called Endless Burn, where you will get to play a snake-like game, where you’ll rotate your device to change the direction of a growing flame. Each bug you burn with the flame adds to the length. You can pick between 5 different types of flames, yellow, orange, purple, blue, and green, each with different size and speed, and each is unlocked by rating the game, liking the developer’s FaceBook page, sending your friend an e-mail, and things like that.

Also, to keep in the tradition of the original Burn The Rope, there are puzzles of the day, which are supported by ads. Free to play, but if you want to get rid of the ads for the daily puzzles, it’ll require an IAP of $0.99. This is a great way to add endless replay ability to the game, and give it more life on your device.

In the end, Burn The Rope: Worlds is done like Cut The Rope: Experiments. More of the same type of gameplay with a couple of expansions on the gameplay. Again, if you enjoyed the original Burn The Rope, Worlds will give you the same kind of great gameplay you fell in love with, just more of it. For $0.99, and loads of content, it’s a great buy. One that every puzzle fan should experience.

Burn The Rope: Worlds gets a score of 9 out of 10.

Links:

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/burn-the-rope-worlds/id449606608?mt=8

Original Lite Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/burn-the-rope-lite/id417015740?mt=8

Website – http://www.bigbluebubble.com/

Colored Bubbles is a new tap/swipe action puzzle game from Zabiyaka. In the game, you try and match up bubbles without popping different colored bubbles in the process. To match the bubbles up, you’ll need to either tap them when they’re overlapping each other, and not touching another colored bubble, or drag a bigger bubble, which is made by combining bubbles, into a smaller bubble that is touching a different colored bubble. This might sound kind of confusing, and it kind of is at first. Finding out what you can and can’t do within the game is something that is easily learned though, and once you do, Colored Bubbles becomes quite the addictive little bubble match + pop game.

The controls are simple to use, and very responsive. When two bubbles of the same color are touching each other, or overlapping, just tap on them, and they will merge together. Once you have a bubble that’s made up of two or more bubbles, you can drag it around the screen, and catch smaller bubbles of the same color, even if they are touching or overlapping bubbles that are a different color. If you tap on a bubble that is touching a different colored bubble, they will both pop, and you will loose your points. The bubbles will also pop, resulting in a negative score, if you drag a smaller bubble into a larger bubble that is touching different colored bubbles. To beat the game, you’ll need to clear the screen of all the bubbles, or have a screen filled with 50 bubbles. After each bubble or bubbles pop, more bubbles will appear on the screen, or you can just wait, as bubbles appear randomly every couple of seconds as well. If you don’t like how the bubbles are floating around, or the current overlapping of a group of bubbles, you can also shake your device to shake up the bubbles, sending them all in different directions, which is a nice mechanic, and a great little helper move if you get stuck.

There are 3 different difficulties within the game, Easy, Medium, and Hard, each setting having more different colored bubbles. Easy has 3 colors of bubbles, Medium has 5, and Hard has 7. Also, the amount of bubbles that you start with, and the frequency in which they appear, or amount of bubbles that appears when you pop or match bubbles, also goes up with the difficulty. There aren’t any extra modes, but with each difficulty, it’s almost like having 3 modes within the game. Though having a time trial or something would have been nice. Also missing from the game are power-ups, which would have fit in extremely well with Colored Bubbles. Something like multiplier increases, changing half the bubbles to one specific color, and things like this would have really spiced up the game.

There is also no online support, so the replay value is limited to beating your own scores, and building up your own score board, as the scores that are already inserted into the game are very easy to beat, with the #1 spot being 100 points (or one match of 5 bubbles). Not being able to battle over the #1 spot, or challenge friends is a pretty big upset when playing a score-oriented game like this. However, Zabiyaka has done a very good job in creating a game that’s pretty addicting, and doesn’t necessarily need online leader boards to have decent replay value. The game is only $0.99, and it’s Universal, so you’ll be able to see and play it the way it’s meant to be played on your iPod as well as iPad.

Colored Bubbles is getting a score of 7 out of 10.

Links:

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colored-bubbles/id459492959?mt=8

Website – http://zabiyaka.com/colored-bubbles

Fruity Jelly is a new puzzle platform type game by Scorsoft and published by the oh so popular, BulkyPix (Pix‘n Love Rush, Babel Rising, and many more). In the game, you will play as a little jelly who is the only one of his village left after an evil being went on a vicious rampage, threatening the fate of the peaceful and calm jelly society. You will need to collect all the fruits in each level and make it to the flower that pops up to save your friends, and restore the balance of this jelly land.

There are two control options for the game, tilting and virtual controls. Tilting will let you tilt your iDevice to move the little jelly through the levels, while having a button on each of the lower corners of the screen that can rotate each of the levels. The virtual controls will give you a slider bar for movement on the right side of the screen, and have both of the level rotating buttons on the bottom left side. Choosing to have the movement bar on the right side, instead of the left side, like most games, was kind of a risky move, but it works very well in Fruity Jelly, and only took a couple of seconds to get use to. You’re also able to pinch and pull the screen to zoom in and out, and double tap to enter a ‘scan’ mode, so you can look around the entire level before deciding what route you’d like to take. Wooden crates are also found in some of the levels, and to break them, you’ll need to tap on them, and some sections in the floors will require you to rotate the level to a certain angle, and then swipe down to make the jelly move through the holes in the floor.

The graphics in Fruity Jelly are done exceptionally well. Along with all of the animations for all of the different enemies, the flower, water, all of the different animations for jelly, like squishing when falling from a high spot, or being hit by an enemy, even all of the fruits move, Fruity Jelly looks very professional, and playing through each of the levels, you can tell that a lot of work and thought has gone into each and every aspect of the game, how it looks, how it sounds, how it plays, and each and every route you can take to get to the end of the levels.

Fruity Jelly does have OpenFeint support, with 23 achievements, but no leader boards, which is kind of upsetting. Having a Time Trial Mode, with no leader boards, so you can’t compare your times with friends or other players around the world, makes the Time Trial Mode a little less interesting, and takes away quite a bit from the replay ability. But there is still a bit of replay ability in getting all of the stars in the game will require a few replays of certain levels, and in some of the later levels, getting through them will require multiple plays. The level design is top notch, and the gameplay is super smooth, and entertaining. Being Universal, and $1.99, with more content on it’s way, it’s a great buy.

Fruity Jelly is getting a score of 9 out of 10.

Links;

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fruity-jelly/id453731825?mt=8

Website – http://www.bulkypix.com/game/fruity-jelly

Neon Thrust is an action physics puzzler from shiny-games in which you’ll guide a little neon box, named Neo, through 60 levels while trying to collect each of the power crystals and make it back out of the levels before they explode. There are also green and red Neons to collect and avoid while navigating through each of the 4 zones.

The controls in Neon Thrust work exceptionally well, giving players a joystick and a thrust button. Moving the joystick in the direction you want to go, and then pressing the thrust button will give you a nice push in the desired direction. The thrust doesn’t last long after you let go of the thrust button, so navigating is done smoothly, and easily throughout the levels.

There are 60 levels, split up into 4 zones, giving us 15 levels in each of the different zones. The difficulty builds pretty slowly, giving players an opportunity to get a pretty good grip on the handling of the controls and physics within the game. The difficulty also climbs at a rate that will leave enough room for gamers to want to return to the first world of the game in order to try and better over all scores, and get the 3 star scores for each of the levels once they’ve gone through the game and can handle Neo with near expert precision. This, along with the GameCenter leader boards for each of the zones, and a total score, add a lot of replay value to Neon Thrust.

While going through each of the zones, new obstacles will be added, like red walls that Neo can not touch, spots in the levels that either end up pushing or pulling gravity, timed lasers, doors that are triggered with switches, and more. The level design is wonderful, and the placement of each of the green and red Neons will leave even the most expert gamers wondering how to get through the level in the shortest amount of time while collecting all the required items in order to get the best score. In order to get 3 stars on a level, you must guide Neo through the level, collect all of the green Neons, avoid all of the red Neons, grab the power crystal, and make it back to the entrance/exit of the level before the timer that starts when you pick up the power crystal reaches zero.

Graphics in Neon Thrust are simple, and minimal, but work extremely well within the game. Neo, the green box that you guide around the levels, is a simple neon green with 2 white squares for eyes, and a white rectangle for his thruster. Each of the 4 zones is a different color, red, purple, brown, and turquoise, each with squares and sharp angles being the main visual theme. The walls are outlined in white, or red, red being the color that you can not touch while going through the levels, either with the walls, or the Neons. The graphics do come off as being retro inspired, but still keep a very modern look about them. This sort of graphical style is quickly becoming a favorite for me, not just throughout mobile iPod games, but with any console.

There is no music except for on the main menu, but the game does have some excellent sound effects. However, I did find the sound that’s made after you die and are given a ‘retry’ screen to be pretty annoying. It would have been much better if the level automatically restarted after each death, because each gamer will die quite a few times throughout the game. Having to hit ‘retry’ every 3 seconds in some areas really took away from the flow of the experience, though this is nothing too big, or really an issue for most people.

In the end, Neon Thrust is a great gaming experience. Wonderful level design with great obstacles and puzzles, along with quite a bit of action because of the timed aspect makes it a very enjoyable game. The addition of GameCenter was done very well, with each of the scores changing each time you do better on a level. This means that players can not simply play the first zone over and over again, and end up with the #1 score on the total leader board. You’ll need to play through each level in the game multiple times, and try and find the best possible route for Neo to take. 60 levels gives us quite a bit of content, but the levels are pretty short. However, more levels are coming in the future, and with the replay value being pretty high, the shortness of the levels shouldn’t really be a problem. Great graphics, and a very smooth gameplay experience make Neon Thrust a great buy at $0.99. If you’re a fan of action, puzzle, physics, or just all around good score driven games, it’s one that you should definitely check out.

Neon Thrust is getting a score of 9 out of 10.

Links;

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/neon-thrust/id451117107?mt=8

Website – http://www.neonthrust.com/

The Big Little Quest is the second isometric puzzle plat former from ITL Business Ltd. The game plays like an extension of their first game, Alone, in that the controls, UI setup, and general gameplay are pretty much the same. But in The Big Little Quest, you’ll play the first episode as you try and save your sister from a villain that kidnapped her and took her to his castle. To get through the game, you will need to talk to everyone you can, find items, weapons, kill dragons, and solve multiple puzzles in order to get to the end.

The graphics in The Big Little Quest have been updated quite a bit from the previous release, Alone. They are a lot smoother, and look more modern, while still retaining the retro feeling. The controls are the same, as in you’ll have 3 different options for control, a d-pad facing up and down with two buttons, jump and attack, a d-pad in isometric position, with attack and jump buttons, and being able to move by touching on each of the 4 corners of your device, double tapping to jump, and swiping to attack.

As it is just Episode 1 of the game, it is a little short. It took me 1 hour to complete the game. But there are some head-scratchers with the added puzzles. Just like in Alone, they are very well planned out, and well made, even though this game is more about exploration. You’ll move throughout the world collecting items, finding the 3 dragons, and maybe re-finding them, after you manage to collect your weapon, and then making your way to the castle and through the dungeon, where most of the puzzles are found.

For the game being only the beginning of the full story, it’s pretty entertaining. I’ve played quite a few games in the past that were first episodes, and they didn’t really give me this much gameplay or promise, and with the developer being active on his website, and on the Touch Arcade Forums, having completed his previous game, it’s pretty solid promise that there will be more to come.

As the game is now, there’s not a whole lot of gameplay, but for $0.99, with the promise of the game expanding, it’s well worth the purchase if you’re into exploration games, or if you liked the developers first release. It’s got nice adventure elements, and really feels like you’re moving forward in the game as you progress. I’m looking forward to playing the future episodes, and can’t wait to find out where the story goes from here.

The Big Little Quest is getting a rating of 6 out of 10, but could very well turn into an 8 out of 10 game after more is added to it.

Links;

Full – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-big-little-quest/id434397667?mt=8

Website – http://www.itlgames.com/tblq

Radballs is a new block matching puzzle game from Glow Play. In it, you’ll need to match up Radballs in groups of 4 or more, making a Mega-Radball. When the Beat Wave, a bar that moves down the screen in time with the beat, hits your Mega-Radball, you’ll need to tap on it, and swipe up and down “scratching” the bar against the Mega-Radball, building up energy, until it’s glowing brightly, then release, and build the Radness Meter at the top of the screen. Filling up your Radness Meter is how you beat the level, and progress through the game.

Radballs controls like most match 3 games, needing to swipe orbs with one another in order to make groups of them. Here, you don’t need to make a match in order to move the orbs, so you’re able to move one orb across the screen to make a match. Once you’ve created a Mega-Radball, you can keep adding to it by putting more orbs on the ends or sides of it, so long as you have enough like orbs there. For instance, if you have a Mega-Radball that’s 3×3 orbs big, you’ll need 3 orbs on top to extend it, or 3 orbs on the side to extend it and make it 4×3 orbs big. The larger the Mega-Radball, the more Radness will be added to your meter. Also effecting Radness is the brightness of the Mega-Radball while you’re scratching the Beat Wave over it. If the Beat Wave just moves over the Mega-Radball without you scratching it, you’re given very few Radness points, hardly filling up the meter at all.

In Arcade Mode, you’ll need to fill your Radness Meter in order to move on through 8 waves in each level. If you fail to continuously build up your Radness Meter, it will drain, and if it empties, you’ll need to replay that wave. Survival Mode lets you play the same way as Arcade Mode, but lets you play through unlimited waves until you fail. Time Trial requires you to fill up your Radness Meter before 60 seconds is up, seeing how fast you can fill the meter all the way. You will also run into Radness Multipliers. These happen when you make a Mega-Radball, bust it with your Beat Wave, and the cascading radballs end up making another Mega-Radball. It will automatically explode, giving you 2x, 3x, even 4x the radness points.

Glow Play has done an extremely good job at mixing the block matching genre with the music/DJ genre, and this mesh works exceedingly well. Giving players the option to play with their own tracks, having Survival and Time Trial Modes, 4 difficulties, GameCenter support with 3 leader boards, and 40 achievements gives Radballs an endless amount of replayabilty. The graphics are awesome, there’s tons of action, and everything about the game is extremely polished and professional, while screaming fun at every turn. $2.99 for this Universal game is a great price. You’re also given the option to listen to the music tracks in-game if you enjoy the music, and having the soundtrack available to just listen to is something I personally think all music games should do. This is one game that will not leave my device in the near future.

Radballs is getting a score of 9.5 out of 10.

Links;

Full Version – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/radballs/id436204338?mt=8

Game’s Website – http://glowinteractive.com/project/radballs

Alone is an isometric puzzle platform game from ITL Buisness Ltd. In it, there has been a terrible chemical warfare attack, and your city is left in ruins. Now you’ll need to find a vaccine for yourself, and your girlfriend, while trying to survive the aftermath outside.

In the game, you’ll go through 14 pretty short levels gathering different objects and items while going through traps and avoiding or killing the mutants that plague the town. Each level has a pretty straight forward objective, and usually only a few screens that you’ll need to navigate through in order to complete the levels. You’re given 3 different control schemes, a regular d-pad with attack and jump buttons, an isometric d-pad with 2 butons, or you can move by tapping in each of the 4 corners of the screen, double tap to jump, and swipe to use your weapons. I’ve found that the d-pads are the best way to navigate through the game, as using the 4 corners controls can get pretty frustrating.

The puzzles scattered throughout Alone are done pretty well, and are timed. This would be a nice feature if some online services were added. GameCenter leader boards for the fastest times in each level would be a great addition to the game, and add quite a bit of replay value. As it is right now, there’s really not much drive to replay any of the levels after you’ve beat them. With each of the levels taking about 2 to 5 minutes to beat, it seems that having GameCenter or Openfeint should be included.

Aside from the lack of online features, there are endless possibilities with the addition of the online level editor. After you finish the 14 levels of the game, you can register at http://alone.itlgames.com and make your own levels. This does drastically help with the replay value of the game, but only if you have the drive to go online and work on your own levels. So in the end, Alone is a very nice isometric puzzle platformer. It is very short, but the time spent playing the game will be enjoyed quite a bit. If you’re a fan of old-school gaming, or just want a platform game that will challenge you to think pretty quickly, with a nice environment, and good controls, Alone should be right up your ally. For $0.99, it’s definitely a game worth checking out.

Alone is getting a score of 7 out of 10.

Spin The Nut is a new puzzle game from P-O-M Apps in which you try and get an acorn to the end of the level to feed the squirrel. You’ll also try and collect 3 golden nuts while getting the acorn to the end. The quicker you collect the golden nuts and make it to the squirrel, the better your score will be.

We’re given 80 nicely designed levels to try and get through, spread across 4 different worlds, with plenty of different objects to have the acorn interact with along the way, like bouncy platforms that are stationary, and then later in the game become platforms that you can move, spikes, helicopter baskets, pieces of wood that break after using them once, signs that will change the direction of the acorn while it’s in the air, and loads more.

The controls in Spin The Nut are done very well. To shoot the acorn, you place your finger on the piece of spinning wood that it’s stuck to, and then slide your finger away from the acorn so that you can see which direction it’s pointing. When it’s aimed in the direction that you want it to go, you let go of the screen, and it’ll shoot forward. There’s no gravity, so you don’t need to account for that, and the acorn will automatically stick to the next piece of wood it comes in contact with. Later in the game you’re also able to move the rotating pieces of wood that the acorn sticks to by single tapping on it to move it, and double tapping on it to activate the firing ability.

The graphics in Spin The Nut are polished and professional, and look very good. The squirrel is extremely cute, and the movement animations are done very well, and the music and sound effects fit with the cutesy vibe going on. The backgrounds, however, are not varied, and although they do let you see the objects throughout the levels very well, they feel pretty bland. For instance, in the treehouse world, the background is yellow with slight shaded in areas resembling branches, in the helicopter world, this changes to a pink background, and as you move on, the background color changes, but nothing else does. I don’t know how much the backgrounds were played around with, but seeing backgrounds that really match the worlds you are playing in could help liven up the game quite a bit, for instance, having an actual forest or tree background for the treehouse world, and the sky with some clouds for the helicopter world.

Spin The Nut is supported by GameCenter, and has 4 different leaderboards, one for each world, which helps add to the drive of getting as good of a score as you can in each level, but there are no achievements, and in a puzzle game like this, achievements go a long way. However, it is a pretty unique puzzle game with nice graphics, and great physics. The objects and gaming mechanics given to us are great, especially with the game only being $0.99. Spin The Nut is definitely a puzzle game that I will play through all the way, and will most likely go back through trying to get better scores and move up in the leaderboards. P-O-M Apps has shown that they have what it takes to make a nice puzzle game with great physics, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they add with future worlds, and what they have in store for us with their next game.

Spin The Nut is getting a score of 7.5 out of 10

Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spin-the-nut/id447830290?mt=8