Circuits
by Blugri Software
Available on: Windows Phone
So. Circuits. Saw this game and got super excited, hoping that it was a learning game about engineering. It’s not, but its still pretty alright. The playing field is a grid of tiles that rotate when you tap on them. Among these tiles are one or multiple power sources, one or multiple lights, and a bunch of wire tiles with configurations reminiscent of Pipe Dream strewn between them. You have to rotate the tiles, aligning the wires in order to connect the lights to power until each of the lights are lit. When I first started playing, I had concern that the game was going to be too easy. Since every tile was going to be used, the configurations weren’t too tough to figure out. However, in all fairness, I was in the easy levels. As I progressed, the puzzles got meatier and more satisfying, as they should. Obstacles start cropping up, like time and move limits, and short circuits. Its a pretty decent little puzzle game, and I’ll likely play all the way through it. On the downside, the UI has a tenancy to be a little unresponsive: I end up tapping a button repeatedly thinking it didn’t register, which ends up sending a tap on to the next page once it loads. The game could do with some loading warnings, or at least disabling buttons once they’ve been pressed. Also the music isn’t the best – it was cute at first, but it’s loop gets annoying pretty fast. Easy enough fix to just shut off the volume though. All in all, a worthy little puzzle game to download. Especially cause its free!
Neonize
by Defenestrate Studios
Available on: Windows Mobile, iOS, Android
The winners of the ‘Amanda’s favorite game studio name’ award delivered a game swaddled in a blanket of space shooter that is obviously the result of DDR and Simon Says having a drunk weekend in Vegas together. At first I thought it was just a shooty game; you’re a little ship in the middle of the screen and there are 4 target areas around you that you can tap in order to shoot in that direction. Then ships start coming at your face. It took me a minute to realize that it wasn’t just sending ships at me in waves, but that the waves were the same sequence each time with one more ship. I continued onward with trepidation, not because memory games aren’t fun, but because I suck so bad at them. At the time, I had the audio off so I didn’t even realize that I was supposed to be shooting these little ships to a beat – but once I figured that bit out, my scores vastly improved. It’s a cool little rhythm and memory game fusion, and I certainly recommend giving it a go. I always see these games as training for my brain meats, hoping that if I play enough of them, I’ll eventually be able to remember where I left my keys every morning. The music is nice enough, and if you’re and auditory learner, the audio gives you a heads up as to which direction the ships are coming from. Also, the bright colored simple geometric shapes on a dark background is reminiscent of Geometry Wars, and are really nice. Download the game, its a good one! Also free.
Doodle God: Planet
by JoyBits Ltd
Available on: Windows Mobile
I probably should have read a bit more about this game before I downloaded it. Its one of those alchemy games with a lot of fluff built around it. I was on board for the first alchemy game I played, but I became bored with it quickly and never really felt the need to play one again. For those of you who haven’t experienced them, you’re given some basic starter elements (generally fire, wind, water, earth, ect) and you combine them to create new elements. You continue doing this until… well I guess until you find all of them. A lot of of the time the combinations don’t really make a lot of sense scientifically – they’re more abstract. Sure, fire + water makes steam, but somehow sand + worm makes a snake, and life + rock makes an egg. Though human + human makes sex, so I guess that makes sense. These games are probably really enjoyable for some people out there, I’m just not one of them. They make me feel the need to start a spreadsheet, (cause it doesn’t stop you from making elements you’ve already made, so you can just keep making the same ones forgetting you’ve already done them) and as much as I love spreadsheets, it’s not something I want to do when I play a mobile game. The fluff around the core gameplay is that you have a barren planet, and with almost every new element you make, it fills in a little spot on your planet. There might be more than that, but I stopped playing pretty early on. If you’re a fan of alchemy games, go ahead and give it a try. Warning, though: Its one of those games that commits a pretty big sin my book: notifications are on by default. If, like me, that’s almost enough of an excuse to uninstall a game on the spot, go into the settings first thing and turn them off.
