Watch drawings come to life in Lines the Game, a zen puzzler

Lines the Game ($2.99) by Gamious is a zen-like puzzle game that will have you racing to the finish. If you enjoy relaxing games like Breath of Light, Blockwick 2, and Color Zen, then you’ll enjoy Lines.

These days, I seem to always be on the move, so it’s hard to get some quality gaming time on my phone. However, whenever I have a few moments, I like to just relax with a simple puzzle game on my iPhone, and I’ve acquired many over the years. That doesn’t stop me from seeking out new ones, though, and when I stumbled upon Lines the Game on the App Store about a week ago, I’ve been fairly happy with the purchase. It’s a unique gem that will keep you busy for hours.

The visuals in Lines follows the trendy minimalistic and flat style that’s been popular over the years. The off-white background makes the film-strip like game menus stand out nicely, and provides great contrast for the rich blacks and vibrant colors that are strewn throughout the game (a Night Mode is available in the settings for playing in the dark). Animations in Lines are buttery smooth on my iPhone 6. The game has a tranquil, piano soundtrack in the background that will help you relax, and the sound effects are a nice touch.

There are 250 distinctive levels in Lines the Game, and they’re split up across five different game modes: Point, Eraser, Rope, Knife, and Mix. Each mode has a different way to play, but the main objective remains the same: place or remove dots to initiate a race between all of the color points, which will fill up a drawing. The color that dominates the drawing wins that stage. There is also a daily challenge, where you only get once chance to win three out of four rounds.

Players can replay a level multiple times, and the points are randomly placed each time, so it’s never the same thing twice. If you can win a level several times in a row, you get a winning streak and earn trophies. The game keeps track of how many times you’ve played a leve, and it tells you how many times you’ve won or lost.

The controls in the game are easy and straightforward. In each stage, you’ll see what color you are by looking at the screen border. The game tells you how many points you can place on the lines, or how many enemy points you can remove. Once the specified number is placed or erased, a race of all the colors begins. Along the bottom are bars that indicate the progress of each color — the longest one is in the lead. A good strategy is to position your points so that they can cut off other colors.

Each level only takes a few seconds to complete, whether it’s a win or loss. As I mentioned earlier, even if you go back to a level and play it again, the experience won’t be the same since the points will always be placed in different spots. Replays are also necessary if you want to earn winning streaks and trophies. There is also Game Center integration for achievements, but no leaderboards since there’s no scoring system.

I’ve been playing Lines for a few days now, and I’m loving it so far. The visuals are simplistic yet beautiful and the music is soothing. The gameplay concept is different and something you don’t see on the App Store, and the controls are easy, making this a perfect pick-up-and-play game for your commute or general downtime.

I highly recommend checking out Lines the Game if you’re interested in a new zen-like puzzle game. You can get Lines the Game on the App Store as a universal download for $2.99 with no in-app purchases.