Overview
Perimetros is a puzzle game that’s like Tetris (aren’t they all?), but instead of building horizontal lines, you have to make build lines around the entire screen. Some might call these lines perimeters. Not me though. I’d call them… something else… that I can’t think of right now. Okay, think of it like this… 360 Tetris. Yes. You’re building those horizontal lines, but on all four sides of the screen at once.
Features
In order to play Perimetros, you have to tilt your phone from side to side. Whichever way you’re tilting is “down” and the piece will fall in that direction. To rotate a piece, you simply tap on it. If you slide your finger across the screen, the piece will move very quickly in that direction. (Careful when you do that because the piece will “lock” faster than if it had just fallen, and you don’t always know where it’s going to end up when you slide it. I ruined a great game I had going recently. It was very upsetting. I thought about crying but then decided it just wasn’t worth it.)
Breakdown
The Good:
If you like Tetris, odds are you’ll like this game. Yes, it’s like M. Night Shyamalan made a Tetris game. “What a twist!” I’m of the “Tetris is fun but it gets kind of old” camp. This is kind of a refreshing change. It adds a whole new challenge to the game. At first, it seems like this should be even easier because now I have four sides to work with, so when I get that stupid piece that I don’t want, it might actually have a home on another side.
But after you get going, you realize that those corners are a little more difficult than you had first imagined. Gaps appear that have no chance of ever being filled. Spirits are crushed. They won again… those bastards… This is harder than it seems. Maybe I should focus on making smaller perimeters, but in my head, it makes sense to make them as big as possible and work inwards.
It’s good that you can turn on your music and play the game. It’s even better if you’ve got the Tetris soundtrack on your phone so you can give it that retro feel. (Actually, as much as I enjoy the Tetris theme, I think that’s one of the things that drove me away from the game… you play it long enough and you just can’t get it out of your head.)
The Bad:
If you’re a hardcore Tetris fan, with like… the game pieces tattooed on your forearm and stuff, (you laugh yet I’ve seen pictures. Go ahead and Google search and prepare to be amazed…), then you might not enjoy this game. It’s kind of like that old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And Tetris wasn’t really broke. Hell, it’s been around for thousands of years. I remember reading about how the early settlers used to play it on their Gameboys to pass the time while heading west in their wagons. Ah, the good old days… when times were simpler… before all this Twitter nonsense.
I wasn’t a fan of the controls. Don’t get me wrong, they were responsive and very well done. But I just don’t dig accelerometer controls. I don’t feel I have the same control I’d have with a controller or using the touch screen. Obviously though, they kind of had to do this. It makes sense, since the pieces can’t just float in the middle of the screen. They have to be descending, and “down” must always be changing. There were a couple times where I couldn’t get the piece to fall in the right place, and I have to place 50% of the blame on me, and 50% of the blame on the accelerometer controls.
The Verdict
Hmm, this is tough. While I did like this game, I can’t say I loved it. Maybe I’m just Tetris’d out. But this was a nice take on an old classic. Though I think I still prefer Tetris to this. Call me old fashioned.
Okay, the only thing that’s really keeping me from recommending this is the price tag. Four bucks is a little steep. For two bucks, I’d tell you to go get it. But now, I’m just gonna say what I said before… if you like Tetris, you’ll probably want to play this game. Just don’t come complaining to me when you’re addicted to this Perimetros.
