I first saw Enigmo in a video of the unveiling of the iPhone SDK. I ‘ve tried a fair number of games on the DS and on my Sony Ericsson k750, so I was wondering how the iPhone could handle gaming. A lack of hardware buttons is a pretty big deal when you ‘re dealing with controls.
Thankfully, Pangea has really paved the way in terms of porting an experience with gameplay that really feel like it ‘s meant for the iPhone. Enigmo ‘s premise is a simple one: guide the droplets of water from the coloured drip into the similarly coloured vessel. You use a variety of tools to bounce, drop, and shoot the droplets “ ultimately guiding 40 of them into the vessel to win the level. It ‘s like a pachinko machine, but with water!
Story
Enigmo is a harrowing tale surrounding the lives of droplets of water, whose task it is to traverse the colourful, glassy wasteland of the iPhone ‘s screen to the promised vessel where they can finally just sit and be wet. How far these droplets fall, bounce, or fly, is up to you, the player.
Gameplay
After starting Enigmo up you can begin a new game or continue from a saved game (this is done at the end of a level). One small touch I really like regarding the main menu is its jello-like state. Tapping anywhere on the screen will cause the whole thing to shake like wobbly gelatin. Cool 😀
The game seems simple enough, as I mentioned before. But things get infinitely more complex when you add another stream of water to manage (so you have to get blue and green droplets into their respective vessels). I ‘ve gotten about as far as level 21 until I lost my game saves (touché, Firmware 2.0, touché). The last level I remember playing had three streams of water, and you had to activate the other two streams by guiding your blue droplets of water into buttons.
You help guide your droplets with a set of tools located on the left side of the screen. There are eight of them in all, and they ‘re introduced over the course of the game (consult the online manual for full descriptions). You ‘ll get a specific type and number of tools per level, so unfortunately there ‘s no choice about choosing your favourites. You activate tools by dragging them into play, tap them to select them, and rotate them by holding onto the edges of the selection circle. There ‘s no tutorial for the tools, but you figure them out very quickly (which is great “ no need to guide the gamer by the hand here).
A few of the reviews in the App Store commented on how the controls can be difficult to use, since precise turning of the tools often results in nudging them out of position as you lift your finger off the screen. I agree with this criticism, although a bit of practice and use of the zoom feature (pinch to zoom, like photos) eventually solved the issue for me.
The great thing about Enigmo is really just how well put-together it is. It ‘s a very solid puzzle game with great physics, graphics, and sounds. The sounds seem to echo like you ‘re in a large puzzle room, although the constant dripping sounds might get to some people after a few stages. I think this game really shows how powerful the iPhone can be as a gaming platform, as it handles all the hundreds of droplets you ‘ll route through the level with ease. That is to say, there ‘s very little lag despite all that goes on during gameplay.
Value
Enigmo debuted on the App Store for $9.99, but it ‘s recently been lowered to about $5.99 if I remember correctly. I can ‘t say the normal price because Enigmo is actually on sale right now for $4.99, making it the best $5 you could spend for puzzle gaming on your iPhone. The game has 50 levels of increasing complexity, but if you ‘re a lot faster than me you can also play the free DLC (downloadable content) made by other users.
Conclusion
I was really excited to get my paws on Enigmo ever since I saw the video demonstration, and I ‘m glad to report that the game has exceeded all my expectations. The game lends itself to short stints of play as you slowly (well, at least for me) figure out how to beat each particular level. Enigmo has proven itself a lifesaver for those moments where I ‘ve got some time to kill with only my iPhone at hand.
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