Be Fast And Line The Shapes Up In Dwice

Dwice - new puzzle arcade game from Tetris inventor ($1.99) by ANDREY NOVIKOV is a fun game that should appeal to anyone who loves puzzle and arcade games.

I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible for someone to not have ever played Tetris. It’s a classic game and one of the best puzzle arcade games out there. The inventor, Andrey Novikov, seems to have branched off from his traditional game and has been creating new titles that are designed for touch screen devices. His first non-Tetris game was Marbly, which I reviewed earlier this year. And now he has come out with another game for us to enjoy, Dwice, this time going back to the retro look and feel of the games that we grew up on.

The thing that drew me in to this game were definitely the graphics. It really reminds me of the old arcade games that I grew up on, as there are bright neon shapes everywhere and the grid layout, as well as the whole “town below” thing, which reminds me of Missile Command. It also comes with a soothing and upbeat soundtrack that is a joy to listen to.

There’s only one game mode in Dwice, but there are plenty of challenges to complete for each level, and you can earn multipliers on the levels for big points. If you fail to do a challenge, you can at least see you progress on it so far before trying again. All challenges need to be met before you can access the next level.

Gameplay is simple enough. You will have various, neon-lined shapes falling from the sky, and you need to prevent them from hitting the city below, otherwise, the game ends. To get rid of them, you will have to match up corresponding shapes together in chains, which is done by dragging one over to the others. The longer the chain, the more points you get. If you have the shape touch a different shape, then the game ends.

It sounds simple enough, but it’s quite challenging. Each level will start out slow, of course, but things escalate rather quickly as you find more shapes introduced, more colors, and everything starts picking up the pace. If you let a shape fall on top of the city, the game ends.

There are some power-ups available, which are the Shield and Ultra Shield. The Shield will destroy any Battle Shapes that are lower on the screen after an error, and the Ultra will destroy all shapes after your error. If you do well enough, you can also go into the Fever Mode, where you can just drag a shape onto all other shapes for massive points.

You will be given a freebie of these power-ups every now and then, but if you want more of them, you will need to pony up through in-app purchases. There are other things you can buy as well, including Double and Multi-Touch, so you can drag multiple shapes simultaneously, or even unlock the Blitz Mode, which will include Double Touch controls with purchase. These IAPs will range from $0.99 to $3.99, but you can also restore your purchases if needed.

I’m loving the gameplay in this one, combined with the awesome arcade-style graphics and music, but I am not that happy with the whole IAP thing. Most of them seem to be things that should have been included with the initial purchase of the game, and the fact that it is also a paid game sours it even more. However, the game itself is completely playable without the extras, since those are just there to make things a bit easier.

Dwice is still worth a look if you can’t get enough of puzzle arcade games for your iOS device. You can get it in the App Store as a universal download for $1.99.