Shift It Review

I love puzzle games. I hate puzzle games. Shift It being just as puzzling as those first two contradictory sentences in this review. The truth is, I do love puzzle games. Very much so in fact. Until the moment where I can't suss them out. That's when the hate part comes in, but that won't stop me playing.

Shift It takes aspects from various games within the genre, even components from physical toys we may have played with as children, such as those sliding tile puzzles and the color-matching concept of everybody's childhood nemesis, the Rubik's Cube. All of which come together to make a very simple type of gameplay that's certainly not easy to conquer in the later stages.

The basic idea is to slide lines of tiles – either left and right, or up and down – with the objective being to place all tiles into segments of matching colors. A little tricky to put across in words, but basically, all red tiles should be grouped together, all yellow tiles should be grouped together. Sounds simple, but it wouldn't be a puzzle game if that were the case. Progressing through the 200+ levels in the game leads to more colors, tiles that are split into more than one color, some that are locked in place and even some rather tricky little squares that rotate 90 degrees each time they're moved -- and then, perhaps toughest thing, the grids get much larger too. The very nature of the game also means there's any number of different solutions to each level, which is rather unique in itself.

It's a very well made game, with highly polished visuals and very responsive controls, it's a lot of fun, and a heap of frustration is relieved by the “so close” message that appears when being one move away from completing the level, saving me from going around in an endless circle. Although even then it's not immediately obvious what the next action should be. Another little touch that makes this a great puzzle game. It's only downfall is possibly the $2.99 price tag. While a few bucks won't break the bank, it seems a lot compared with all the $0.99-$1.99 games we've been spoiled with in the App Store's past.