Sortee Review

Often, the most addictive ideas are the simplest. Sortee is one such title. It involves doing something that we all do at some point in our day to day activities, yet turns it into a quite compelling game: sorting objects out.

It starts out quite basically. Two tubes are placed on either side of the screen, each with a label next to them to explain what they're for. An object appears in the center, such as a bat or apple and it's down to the player to quickly determine which tube it should be sent towards. At first, it's easily done. Early stages involve simply dividing by color or clearly obvious categories. As things develop, though, some more thought is required. This is most apparent when the number of tubes increase to 3 or 4. The crux of the game might be simple but when put under the pressure of a tight time limit and the process of elimination, Sortee can get quite challenging.

That's where the beauty of Sortee comes in. It's all too easy to sink increasing amounts of time into playing through a stage or two, because there's the satisfaction of success at regular junctures. The Classic mode is suitably fast by itself but for real experts, Fast kicks things up a notch. There are power-ups to purchase with in-game coins too, offering hints, time slowing abilities or extra health (usable as the screen begins to 'crack' through mistaken turns), although I didn't really find myself using them.

Similarly, there are other obstacles such as earthquakes and sandstorms which impede the player's progress but keeps things interesting. Sortee is a keenly designed game with the only irritant I found being the constant vibration alert after matching an item, although this can be switched off from the options.

It's not a concept that automatically endears anyone but Sortee does it all well. It's a simple yet enjoyable casual focused game, but one that will trick one's brain more than expected. A fine combination for the grand price of nothing.