When it comes to game apps, I love puzzles. I don’t like the pressure of time limits or games that require excellent hand-eye coordination, especially on a tablet, where screen sensitivity and the game’s own calibration settings can make the difference between clearing a level and just getting stuck. I also hate it when a game app is designed to get gradually, progressively more challenging but suddenly goes from simple to seemingly impossible from one level to the next.
With these preferences in mind, Konundrum and Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2 are two puzzle game apps I can recommend.
Konundrum (4/5 stars on Amazon, all ages, currently priced at 99 cents and currently comes bundled with a $1 Amazon MP3 Store credit) is sort of a combination maze / labyrinth game.
You must guide glowing ‘energy balls’ to a goal in the fewest possible moves. The balls move in a straight line when you swipe them, and don’t stop until they hit a wall or other obstacle. You have to think ahead to see where the balls will go when you swipe them, and to plan your sequence of moves toward the goal. There’s no time limit, so you can take your time planning out your moves before actually swiping the energy ball to set it in motion.
Also, the energy balls pause in place when they hit a wall or obstacle, so you can alter your strategy as you go if need be.
As you progress through the levels, additional balls of different colors are added, and must be guided to their own, individual goals. The additional balls add to the challenge and strategy, since you have to ensure the moves you make with one ball won’t block any of the other balls’ pathways to their own goals.
Sometimes it’s necessary to move one ball to a certain location just to create an obstacle for another ball to hit on its way to its own goal, then continue moving the first ball toward its goal after the second one is already ‘home’.
Special spaces and obstacles amp up the challenge even more, but the game’s increase in difficulty is gradual. The energy balls will come to a stop, change direction, or even teleport when they pass over these special spaces.
One feature this game has that I absolutely love is a link at the bottom of each puzzle to a YouTube video showing the solution.
These videos work great on the Kindle Fire, and while they take you out of the game and into a browser window, returning to where you left off in the game is as simple as tapping its icon on your Fire’s homescreen carousel. The videos are also very helpful if you forget what a given special space does before solving a level.
Konundrum is an attractive game app that’s fun and challenging, but because there’s no time limit, solution videos are close at hand and it’s possible to reset any level at any time, this game won’t end up being more frustrating than fun.
I rate it 4.5/5 stars.
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Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2 (4.5/5 stars on Amazon, all ages, currently priced at $2.99 and currently comes bundled with a $1 Amazon MP3 Store credit) is the classic game of Mahjong with some added storyline/quest elements and special tiles.
The basic game of Mahjong requires the player to match tile pairs to clear the playing field. The tiles are laid out in layers, such that it’s necessary to remove tiles from the top layer before you can start matching and removing the tiles hidden beneath.
In Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2, there’s the added dimension of a storyline and collecting artifacts with each level you clear. At the start of each level you’re shown a snippet of a storyline involving a woman’s search for a man who’s gone missing and has apparently acquired supernatural powers of some sort, which he’s using to style himself as a god. It appears the woman needs all of the artifacts in order to defeat him, since you are awarded a new artifact when you complete a level.
There’s also a travel element, as the woman moves from country to country seeking this mystery man. The designs used on the Mahjong tiles change according to the location, which is an interesting twist on the classic game. For example, when in Europe, the tiles feature images from the Waite-Rider tarot deck.
While these alternative images on the tiles are well-rendered, if you’re not already familiar with tarot you may have to guess a bit to figure out which images can be matched to clear some of the tiles. For example, while the ‘number’ cards can only be matched to one another (e.g., two of swords can only be matched to another two of swords), the matching Major Arcana images aren’t identical (e.g., The Empress is a match for The Emperor).
Speaking of tiles that may be confusing, Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2 also adds special tiles that are intended to provide help when you’ve run out of matches. However, all of these various tiles’ designs and behaviors are only explained once, in the tutorial you’re shown the first time you play the game, so by the time they turned up in later levels I’d forgotten what most of them do. Their images aren’t self-explanatory and some of their behaviors are complex (e.g., remove all tiles of a certain pattern, make two tiles switch places, pull a tile from a lower layer to to the top layer, etc.). As far as I can tell, the only way to learn what they do is to view the tutorial all the way through again, which is tedious. Also, by the time you get back into your puzzle you may find (like me) you’ve forgotten what some of the special tiles do again.
The game controls (shuffle tiles, undo, etc.) are provided at the bottom of the screen, but other than the undo button, it’s not easy to remember what they do after you’ve played several levels past the tutorial. It’s also not very clear how the game is scored; at the end of each level you see a scoreboard, and it seems as if there’s a penalty for each shuffle and for each pair of tiles you’ve left on the playing field at the end of each level, but so long as you clear the level you get the artifact for the level.
If you’d prefer, after viewing the tutorial you can opt out of the quest/adventure mode by choosing “Classic” from the main menu when the game starts. I don’t see that this makes much of a difference in gameplay though, since you still have the same levels to solve in the same order.
In spite of the confusion I’m having with the game controls, scoring and special tiles, I give Mahjong Artifacts Chapter 2 4/5 stars because I realize others may not have the same problem, and overall the game is beautiful to look at, fun to play—even addictive!—-, and has some nice music, too.