Flipstones Review

Flipstones is PressOK Entertainment's newest game in the iTunes Store. Could a game centring around making big triangles out of little triangles be worth the $1.99 price?

Flipstones is a puzzle game where you use triangles on a grid to create shapes and build up points. Players can pick between two modes, Challenge and Endless. Challenge is a great starting point because it runs you through eighteen levels of difficulty and giving you a great feel of how to play the game. Endless is mode where there are no goals or levels, just continuous play. Your score can then be uploaded online via OpenFeint.

The game is very straight forward to play; just move different colored triangles around the grid to make bigger triangles or pentagons. Each color triangle unlocks a certain power when made into a larger shape and tapped. For instance, orange shapes will burn away triangles in the surrounding area. Though watch out: new triangles constantly drop onto the grid, attempting to block your moves. As you progress through the Challenge levels, some triangles have bonuses, such as moving across the grid faster.

When you first begin to play challenge mode, Flipstones delivers clear instructions, which are given throughout the first level. Although the game can seem a little slow at first, the levels get harder quite quickly. This rapid progression will keep you on your toes, especially as the grid fills up quicker and quicker.

The background music is not too intrusive and the sound effects are detailed - even the action of triangles rolling into their new grid positions has a sound. The graphics have also been thought through well; the shiny effect to everything is quite charming. When you close the app it saves where you were last, so no need to trawl through the menus again.

However, despite various levels to play through, there is only so much you can do on a grid this size with triangles. Although the levels get quite challenging, for those who love puzzle games this probably won't take too long to complete. Once the Challenge levels are complete, Endless may seem too easy for die-hard puzzle fans. Fliptstones would definitely keep fans of puzzle games occupied throughout, though those that aren't may find the first few easy levels slightly repetitive.

Given that Flipstones uses OpenFeint to submit scores, there is a great opportunity here for PressOK to add multiplayer challenges. This would give the game a new dimension to make it longer, more interactive and competitive.

Overall, Flipstones is a good little puzzle game which has been well thought out. However, for $1.99 the game could do with a few more modes and/or a multiplayer elements before I would recommend this.