iPhone Game Review: Tiiled

When you have a few time to play then a puzzle or a word game may be the best choice to make.

Tiiled is certainly an interesting and innovating puzzle for a quick session. By the way, you can try the Tiiled Lite before purchasing the full version.

The loading time is a bit high considering the basic graphics and the lack of sound.

As soon as it loads a mini help is shown resuming the game rules that you will understand completely after reading the well done Tutorial. That said the initial screen could be the game main Menu that you can access after starting your first game. It is a strange approach.

Gameplay

What makes this title interesting is the gameplay itself because it is a new puzzle with nice variants.

The goal is very simple: clear the board by double tapping a tile. Each tile, however, removes adjacent tiles according to its shape (e.g. a vertical line will remove the tiles above and below).

To help you understand which adjacent tiles will be removed just tap it and the tiles that will be removed will be highlighted.

However, you have to avoid the so called Strike. It occurs when you clear an area of the board twice (e.g. you double tap a tile that removes an adjacent tile then you double tap another tile that could have removed the same tile the previous move has already removed - that is a Strike). Strikes reduces your score and thus they should be avoided.

The game also supports Themes. They are different skins with different tiles that affect different adjacent areas. Themes are more than skins, they are different modes. There are 3 themes right now.

The controls are simple and they work properly. In addition, you can also make use of Undo (that will reduce your score if used after 2 seconds of your last move - it is like another tool to help you solve the puzzle) and, at the end of a game, gently shake the iPhone to remove the last tiles that don?t affect adjacent areas of the board (more points are acquired).

Talking about score. Each theme has 10 levels (each of the 10 is not fixed, it seems to be randomly generated). The score is saved every time you finish a level. However you can achieve a higher score only in a higher level. That makes sense because level 10 should be the hardest one after all.

Anyway, for a solo puzzle like this and without online integration a high score with such leveling approach seems to be a bit useless. I would like to see emphasis in Statistics (the game keeps track of some informations and it displays them when you select a theme).

In addition, the high score would be nice in an eventual Challenge mode. Something like play 3 games on level 1 or play 3 games from level 1 to 3 (like an easy mode). Once the challenge is finished a high score would be generated considering all 3 games.

In resume, I would like to see a Free Play that would keep statistics and a Challenge mode to play for a high score.

Finally, since the last game update (Aug 20, 2009) you can select a level to play (if it is already unlocked) and you can also create a custom game.

Graphics

The interface itself needs some improvements. Like I said the initial mini help screen is not enough to completely understand the game so the main game Menu should be there instead.

The game itself has just good graphics, specially the Original theme style.

Sound

The game does not have sound effects nor background music but it supports iPOD music.

Pros

Unique puzzle
3 game modes
Levels to unlock
Simple statistics per theme
It can properly resume
iPOD music support

Cons

No sounds at all
Menu or interface approach is not good
The overall presentation could be better

Conclusion

Tiiled is an innovative and interesting puzzle game perfect for a quick session. Its themes provide not only different skins but also new modes to play. A better menu or interface approach along with sound effects would make it really good.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Graphics: -2.5- too simple
Sound: -1- no sound but supports iPOD music
Controls: -5- the new Undo system is a nice addition
Gameplay: -3.5- it could be better with a new high score or statistics approach

Playing Hints and Tips:

A single tap reveals the board areas that will be affected
You can use Undo without penalty to help you solve the puzzle
To access statistics go to main Menu, tap Themes then tap one of them

Game Facts:
Developer: Keep Thinking Games, Inc.
Release Date: Jun 01, 2009
Genre: Puzzle
Price: $2.99
Size: 1.5 MB
Buy Game: iTunes App Store