TwoDots Review

TwoDots bears plenty of resemblance to its more popular cousin app Dots, and that is definitely not a bad thing. TwoDots retains Dots’ exceptional art and sound design and adds in tons of variety by introducing objectives and alternative gameplay elements that go beyond simple dots. One of the first examples of one of these elements is the addition of anchor dots in the early maritime themed levels. These black and white dots sink to the bottom of the board and when they reach the bottom they fall out. A majority of the objectives in this section revolve around trying to remove a certain amount of these from the board, and it's small touches like this that really give TwoDots much more replay value than the original Dots.

One more way that TwoDots shakes things up is by dramatically varying the geometry of the levels. Sometimes the playing field is long and thin with limited room to operate and sometimes it is expansive but a low turn count make matching long chains imperative. TwoDots retains all the connection rules from the original and one thing that is apparent very early on is the importance of completing squares. By connecting any amount of dots in such a way that ends with the first one, every other dot on the board of that color is removed. It is a very powerful mechanic and because in the next turn there is one less color the chances of creating a second square are even higher. This allows for seemingly impossible quotas to be met with relative ease and creates for some geniunely exciting gameplay.

Being a big fan of the original, I was expecting a lot from developer Betaworks One and I was in no way disappointed. One small gripe I have with the progam is the lame ‘heart’ mechanic. Each player is given five hearts, and after every loss a heart is lost. After all, hearts are lost the player must then wait 20 minutes each for them to regenerate. This is really just a transparent money grab hoping that impatient players shell out $0.99 for five more moves on that puzzle or a bomb to blow up a few remaining dots. This limitation only gets in the way a few times and, even though I never bought anything, the temptation is definitely there.

TwoDots is definitely a game that I recommend even for those who are not familiar with its predecessor. Hours of varied and addictive gameplay wrapped up in a warm, modern design await those who accept the challenge.