Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Winning Blimp
Tiles, blocks and whatnots hey that rhymes! But what is it with these types of things that make them perfect for puzzle games? Not just in puzzle games either, but if you were sitting down and had some coloured tiles in front of you I bet you that you would feel the need to organise them. Anyway Mosaique is a funky puzzle game with a funky name that has hooked me these last few days.
Mosaique is a game that is not trying to dazzle you with its visuals. You basically have a greyish background and you have a few different coloured tiles on the screen. The user face is not all cluttered up at all and everything just has a nice clean look to it. At the bottom of the screen you have a few buttons and a power meter. So yes at first glance I am sure many people are going to just ignore this game because of how basic it looks. But those folks are missing out on a very fun game. I always tell people never judge a game by the way it looks and this game is a great example of that.
What has hooked me about this game though is its just all round amazing fun game play. This is not a puzzle game that is trying to reinvent the genre or give us anything amazingly new. But it does what it does very well. The idea of the game is that you need to clear the screen of the different coloured tiles. Let’s face it we have done this kind of thing many times before in games, but for some reason it just does not get old.
One thing I will tell you right away is ignore the tutorial. It just left me feeling really confused. Sure I am a moron, but this is a game that is best figured out by playing it. Each game consists of seven rounds and each round gets harder. You move a tile round the outside of the screen using the keys at the bottom of the screen. The idea is that you want to hit as many of the same colour as possible as this scores you more points. You can swap out the tiles to make for longer lines which will then score you more points. So if the tile on the outside is say green and you shoot it at an orange one they will trade colours.
I mentioned before that you have a power meter and this is filled up as you make successful moves around the level. Once it is full the tile on the outside is powered up and starts flashing. This means that the tile can go through any coloured tile including the black tiles. The black tiles can only be destroyed when you have a full power meter. Each level has more and more tiles for you to break. One cool thing is that there is not a time limit here. You can go at your own pace, but each move you make will drain your power meter. So you will want to make sure that you take out as many tiles as you can in as few moves as possible.
I love this game and I am sure that pretty much anyone else who plays it will as well. To me it is one of those rare puzzle games like Tetris a game that a person of any age can enjoy. One other really cool thing about the game is that you pay a buck and that is it. No in app purchase or anything like that. This is a great puzzle game at a fantastic price.