Review: Enigmo

Overview From the iTune's page: "Enigmo is a 3D puzzle game where you direct animated streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets get to their destination. Water, Oil, and Lava from Droppers and bounce around the walls of the puzzle. You move and rotate various types of bumpers, sliders, accelerators, and sponges in order to divert the flow of the falling droplets. The faster you complete each of the 50 levels, the more bonus points you receive."

Gameplay

Enigmo opens simply enough with three options: 'Play Game' (self-described), 'Settings' (allows you to change & test volumes/sounds), and 'Info' (offering links to 'Credits' and 'Help').

Now for the meat! After tapping 'Play Game' you'll be prompted to begin a 'New Game' or 'Resume' a saved one. Each level is accompanied with a nifty little intro -- cool sound effects and some animation eye-candy. Afterwhich, the game commences.

Water begins falling from the faucet, as do your Bonus Points which are displayed in the upper-right hand corner. Your current level is shown in the upper-left, and each represents a puzzle race to steer 40 droplets of water into the vase as quickly as possible -- the number of droplets remaining is displayed in the bottom right. The bottom left '?' takes you to a help pop-up with game instructions.

Gameplay consists of using the puzzle pieces to direct the flow of water into the vase, which, I have to admit, is more challenging that it sounds!

Grab a puzzle piece from the left hand side to remove it from the inventory bar, and double-tap it to make it return. After selecting a piece it will be surrounded with a circular highlight, whereby you can move it by dragging your finger.

You can also rotate the piece by touching the circular highlight and moving your finger in the direction you want it to tilt.

Pinching and pulling the background will let you zoom in/out. Double-tap the background to 'Pause', 'End Game', and 'Change Settings', and you've got the basic strokes of the game down.

Review

This app definitely gets some major points for graphics & sound, previously unparalleled on the iPhone. It also comes with something else that's previously unparalleled... an actual price-tag, $9.99! But it's this sorta quality that makes the App Store worth the wait, and makes future prospects exciting. The ability to save games and the physics involved in the actual gameplay makes this a really well-thought out application.

As a puzzle game Enigmo is definitely not easy. Don't get me wrong, you can pound through levels quickly enough, though most likely pointlessly (as in 'without a point scored', not 'without a point'), but there is definitely a learning curve in figuring out what each puzzle piece does. On level 3 I was stumped for a few minutes trying to figure out what the Fire Containers were for, as the 'Help' pop-up clearly states "the goal is to get 40 water droplets into the water cannister." I won't say any more than that in hopes of making you suffer as I did... bwahahha. My one gripe with Enigmo is the double-tapping for pause. While it's definitely a must-have feature, I wish they had found a different (read: better) way of integrating it. I found myself inadvertantly pausing & resuming, pausing & resuming, as I tried to fine-tune the position of a spring, sponge, board, etcetera. As you can imagine, frustration ensued.

Summary

From jailbroken Parking Lot to native Enigmo, puzzle games have come a long way on the iPhone. It's amazing what a little monetary incentive can do to lure top-shelf talent, proper resources, and focused time into iPhone development.

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