Review: Cross Fingers - Just Released Today
by Staff Writer
November 25, 2009
Overview
Cross Fingers is a brand new puzzle game from Mobigame, the minds behind the outstanding Edge. It’s a new twist on the tangram puzzle style with more complex puzzles to solve. You slide the varying shaped pieces around the board, to complete the black region, and finish the puzzle.
Each puzzle provides a brand new challenge that will require not only thinking skill, but finger skill. The game uses the multi-touch ability perfectly allowing you to slide barrier blocks at the same time as moving the puzzle blocks.
Features
When you first enter the game there is a puzzle mode with 30 levels each for easy, medium, and hard giving you 90 puzzles. Once you complete all of those you unlock 30 more even tougher puzzles, and finally when you complete all 120 levels in the game you unlock arcade mode.
Once you reach arcade mode the game becomes score based, and can provide limitless replayability. You have to complete each puzzle in order to unlock the next puzzle. To control the game you just tap on a piece, hold it down and drag it around, and you can do that to multiple pieces at once.
The Good
Mobigame has done it again, and provided excellent brain teasing fun. These puzzles are the most difficult I’ve played on the iPhone, and seem to only be possible on the iPhone. As difficult as it is, you’ll want to keep playing, and figure them out to unlock the next puzzle.
Mobigame has been able to walk the tight rope and balance difficulty and fun, so it doesn’t make you throw your idevice across the room in frustration. Each level provides a brand new challenge, and requires a new technique.
The level design and piece placement provides is the main challenge as you will have to rearrange the pieces on the board, but there are blockades in your way. Sometimes the levels just have solid wood preventing you from sliding pieces around. On other levels there are movable barrier pieces that you have to hold in place while moving pieces past.
It truly is Cross Fingers as seen by the more advanced levels where it feels like Twister with your fingers as you’re moving the pieces around. You will want to make it through all 120 levels, and will have a good time doing so. Then you get to play an arcade mode adding even more time spent with this game.
The game is designed really well, from the menus to the play area. The game has a wood theme, and it feels like you’re dragging the pieces around your coffee table. The controls worked perfectly, and picked up every multi-touch I tried.
The Bad
One problem is that you can’t move on to the next puzzle until you beat the one you’re on. So when you get stuck, you’re stuck!
Another minor concern is that the sounds are annoying. There is no background music leaving you with the moving of pieces which sounds like bricks moving. It’s too bad because Edge had such a good soundtrack.
The Verdict
Edge was an outstanding game that was marred by trademark issues, but now their second game looks like a sure fire hit. This is one of the best puzzle games you can have on your idevice. It provides iPhone unique controls, and beautifully balances the degrees of fun and challenge. Like Edge before it, this game looks to be nominated as best brain teasing game for next year’s AppAwards.
I can’t believe this game is only $0.99, for that price you get an outstanding iPhone unique puzzle game, so it’s easily a must buy.