Little Luca [Glowingpine Studios] - $0.99

Physics puzzlers are one of a couple of genres that feel right at home on the mobile device’s touch screen. And while most of them have you using the environment to move objects around, there are a couple that take that sort of gameplay mechanic to another level. Games like Bumpy Road, Solipskier, Lazy Raiders, Night Sky and others do this in such a way that, even though some might not consider it incredibly original, they still do manage to feel fresh, unique and new while playing. And that’s where the new title from Glowingpine Studios, Little Luca, fits in. 

While looking out at the stars one night, Luca notices something strange happening. All of a sudden, the stars start falling out of the sky. Now it’s up to you to collect them all and restore the sky to it’s original beauty by collecting the 3 stars in each stage using the environment to maneuver a little ball around. As with most games, the beginning of the game acts as a soft intro to the gameplay mechanics, with only a couple of objects moving when you ‘activate’ them with the game’s simple one touch controls. As you progress further, more elements are added like whales, airstreams, gravity wells and more making the gameplay incredibly interesting as well as challenging. 

In each level there are certain objects that will activate when you touch the screen. Sometimes it’s a circle that will indent, launching the ball when you let go of the screen, other times it’s a platform that will move, knocking the ball into something else, slowing it’s momentum or even completely changing the direction of the ball. Some airstreams will always be active while others will be ‘dead’ until you touch the screen, activating them and some of them will even be rotating, requiring you to tap the screen at the precise moment to send the ball in the direction that it needs to in order to reach the end of level goal. Whales act as a sort of moving circle most of the time, swimming around in the water ready to launch the ball upward when the time is right. All of this put together has allowed the developers to come up with some incredibly inventive level designs, and even better, they’ve very clearly well thought-out level designs. I couldn’t help but be impressed throughout the game with how perfectly each and every level was put together. 

Graphically the game is a throwback to the days of retro gaming while still adding the sort of ‘modern retro’ graphics that iOS gamers have come to enjoy. It isn’t so retro that the pixels don’t have character and becoming attached to the little white ball is not hard to do. Throughout the 90 levels there are 3 different worlds, each with their own distinctive environments and while the graphics are inherently minimal because of the retro graphics used, they are also done incredibly well, adding a lot to the vibe throughout the game. 

On top of the challenge of collecting each of the 3 stars in every stage, there is also a nice scoring system that’s based on how many stars you collect and how quickly you do it. This is emphasized with GameCenter’s 4 leaderboards; one for your Total Score and a board for each individual world. And while there are no achievements, this adds to the drive of scoring better, and collecting every star while flying perfectly through each and every level. 

Priced at $0.99, being completely IAP free and not having one little negative thing that I can say about the game, it’s very easy to recommend Little Luca. It’s very clear that a lot of love, effort and time has gone into this incredibly polished physics puzzler. It also brings that ‘something special’ to the table, making it stand out in the sea of physics puzzlers that have infested the AppStore over the last couple of years. More levels are planned in the future, and I sincerely hope that the game sells well enough to make that possible, as finding a game like this, especially within it’s genre, is an insanely rare occurrence. 

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Linkies [Visual Dreams] - $0.99

Match-3 Puzzlers are, like almost every genre in the AppStore, a dime a dozen these days. However, like we’ve been seeing lately, the genre still has some new life in it. This time, Visual Dreams is taking the Match-3 gameplay a step further with their new release, Linkies, a Match-3 Puzzler with a strong emphasis on Physics-Based gameplay, and why no one has done this yet is beyond me as the two genres really do mix together extremely well. 

Linkies tells the story of a robot from the Dark Ages who’s awoke, spewing blocks of various shapes and colors all over the Linkies beautiful world. Now it’s up to you to clean it all up. There are two modes of gameplay, Story Mode and Blitz Mode, but the core gameplay in each is identical; Match 3 or more blocks of the same color to clear them from the gameplay area. 

Story Mode has 90 levels spread across 5 different worlds, while Blitz Mode is endless and goes until blocks reach the top of the screen.  In Story Mode, you’re awarded up to 3 stars in each level, based on how quickly you can complete the stage, as well as coins throughout the level. You’re able to use these stars and coins in the game’s shop to purchase upgrades and power-ups. Once you unlock the power-ups, they’ll be available for use in Blitz Mode.

Now, what really sets Linkies apart from other Match-3 games, it’s physics-based mechanics. In the game, there’s 4 different colored blocks that you’ll need to try and clear out of each level. Once you clear out a group of blocks, the blocks on top of them fall down, filling in the hole that you’ve created. This, by itself, doesn’t sound too interesting, but when you throw in the level designs and mechanics, the gameplay can get pretty nice. Some levels include moving platforms that mix up the blocks, others have edges that squeeze together, pushing the blocks in tight. Basically, the blocks will be constantly mixed up throughout each level, meaning that you’ll need to be quick when creating your matches. Once you add in the game’s power-ups and upgrades, bringing bombs, cluster chains, mystery shapes, grenades, slow motion, X-Ray, color bombs and more into the mix, interesting is definitely one way to explain it all. 

The shop is split up into two sections, Upgrades and Consumables. Upgrades are purchased with the stars that you earn at the end of each level while Consumables are purchased with coins. Everything is reasonably priced, but, like most other games with shops, there are IAPs for both currencies. However, you’re not required to purchase anything extra in order to progress through the whole game, or to unlock anything special, so it’s set-up more like a donation if you’re enjoying the game, and want to help support the Visual Dreams studio.

The graphics and animations in Linkies are very well done. Each of the 5 different worlds has their own beautifully crafted environment, the pond, field, stream, sewer, and resting place of the block spewing robot. Though the environments are very nice, they are also fairly dark, leaving the extremely vibrant blocks stand out above everything else. Visual Dreams stated that they let their graphic designer ‘go crazy’, and it definitely shows. The animations are smooth, and add to the gameplay, with the explosions, connecting lines, and everything else done very well, and mixing in with the physics of the game perfectly. 

GameCenter integration is included, with a leaderboard for Blitz Mode and 28 achievements. Blitz Mode will constantly ask for you to log into Facebook in order to show the leaderboards and shop, which can get pretty annoying until you do. If you don’t have FB though, you will be unable to purchase consumable items before each Blitz game, which is pretty frustrating. Though, it’s not required for you to submit scores to GC, and clicking on the ‘Leaderboard’ GC icon at the top of the page will take you to the GC board. Aside from that, which is my only real complaint, Linkies is a great Match-3 game. Priced at $0.99 and being Universal, if you’re a fan of the genre, the physics-based mechanics definitely make Linkies stand out, and with the endless Blitz mode and 90 Story mode levels, there’s plenty of content to play through. Visual Dreams has definitely revived my love of Match-3 gameplay. 

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Blast-A-Way [Illusion Labs] - $4.99

Physics-puzzlers. Just saying the words can make some gamers cringe. Over the last few years, the AppStore has been overrun with the genre. But recently, we’ve been seeing this genre expand, bringing some life back into the bland and repetitive physics puzzler. Great examples of this are Band Together, Pebble Universe, GasketBall, Chicken Raid, Sola Rola, Splash!, Follow the Rabbit and Draw Breaker, among more. Well, adding to this list, and jumping up to the very top of it is a development company that has been around the AppStore for a while now; Illusion Labs (developers of Sway, Touchgrind BMX, Labyrinth 2 and more). Their new title, Blast-A-Way, is a sort of mix between iBlast Moki 2, Plight of the Zombie, Gesundheit and even a bit of Portal. 

Blast-A-Way has you controlling three robots who are trying to collect little creatures known as Boxies, who happened to be blown all over their world when a freak accident happened while climbing Sticky Bomb Monument. Armed with nothing but the bombs that are scattered throughout the world, it’s up to you to bring the Boxies home. 

You’ll start off in the Wood World, where, surprise, everything is made of wood. As you collect Boxies, the other worlds open up, letting you move on even if you haven’t completed all of the previous world’s levels. There are 5 separate worlds, each with 16 levels, and all having different environmental looks. After the Wood World, you’ll move on to Metal Mania, Fabric Fanatic, Stone Supreme and end with Plastic Paranoia. Like so many other games before it, Blast-A-Way has a 3 ‘star’ ranking, which is determined by how many Boxies you’re able to collect in each stage. With 80 levels, and 240 Boxies to collect, Blast-A-Way will keep you busy for quite some time. 

Using the bombs that are laid out in each stage, you’ll need to blow up certain bricks that are either holding Boxies, holding different types of bombs or blocking your way to the level’s exit. There are multiple bombs that you’ll come across while progressing through the game, like a Contact Bomb, which blows up on contact, a Sticky Bomb, which sticks to any surface, a Transport Bomb that teleports you wherever it lands, a Rebuilding Bomb that reconstructs broken bricks and more. Each of these bombs are only compatible with bricks of the same color. That means that if you throw a blue Sticky Bomb onto a green surface, none of the green surface will be destroyed. But if there’s a blue brick right next to the green surface, it will get blown to bits. There are also different colored force field type objects that, when a bomb is thrown through them, the bomb changes color. All of this thrown in makes for some very interesting and unique level designs, and with the very well thought out puzzles that litter the game, it gets to be very entertaining, as well as challenging. 

The controls are designed to fit the touch screen; tap on a robot and draw a line to move them, to pick up or change bombs, simply walk over them, to rotate the screen, drag anywhere outside of the level’s platforms, to scroll the level, drag on the level’s platforms, and to move the level up and down, touch two fingers on the screen and drag either up or down. You can also zoom in and out by pinching the screen, and double tapping on an object will give you a better view of it. To throw bombs, you just tap on the object you want to hit, and hold down. A gauge will pop up, determining the angle that you’ll throw the bomb at the object, either straight at it, or by tossing it up and over other objects. 

Graphically, Blast-A-Way looks great. The minimal look of everything is very reminiscent of Portal, and with each world having a different look, there’s a big splash of Illusion Labs own touch thrown in for good measure. The robots look like they were designed by Pixar, and the sound effects fit this as well. The soundtrack fit’s the game well enough, however, having some more down tempo/ambient tracks would have done a better job at setting the mood. 

GameCenter is supported, but there are no leaderboards. This isn’t surprising, considering there’s no time-limits or scoring system to be found within the game either. There are 7 achievements, with the one that will take the longest being ‘rescure 240 Boxies’. Some more creativity with the achievements, and a scoring or timing system would have added quite a bit of replay value to the game, even after getting all 3 Boxies in each stage, and hopefully we’ll see something like this added in the future. It’s kind of disappointing that a game with this much polish doesn’t include these. However, it’s still a great buy, even priced at $4.99. It’s price point is no real surprise. Illusion Lab’s games are basically all priced the same, and with Blast-A-Way being Universal, and the very, VERY rare sales that Illusion Labs has shows that they have faith in their products. And they should. There is not one Illusion Labs title that I have been disappointed with yet. If you’re looking for something that will get you back into the Physics-Puzzler genre, look no further. Blast-A-Way contains an insane amount of polish, is incredibly entertaining, and will have you hooked after the first 5 levels. 

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Review Rewind: iBlast Moki 2

iBlast Moki is easily one of the best physics puzzlers available in the AppStore, winning quite a few awards, and being named the best puzzle game by IGN in 2009, it was no surprise to see a sequel released a couple years later, and Godzilab nailed it. iBlast Moki 2 contains more of the same great things that made the original so great, including the great physics, fantastic level design, and awesome level creator, along with cool new bombs and gameplay mechanics. It's also no surprise that after a year, you can still find the game on our devices. Though the hype has gone down quite a bit, with the release of Godzilab's newest title, Happy Street, they made both the original and the sequel for iBlast Moki available for FREE, either reminding everyone how great the game was, or giving everyone who missed it the first time around another chance to pick it up. Now, with just about everyone who owns an iDevice having iBlast Moki 2, the user created levels have started getting more attention, and there's still tons of new, unseen, and great content to be played, and I wouldn't be surprised if you found iBlast Moki 2 on our devices in another year. It's simply one of the best puzzle games available for the platform. 

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.0

--Click Here to check out the original review--

iBlast Moki needs no real introduction, the physics-puzzle game from Godzilab is one of the most popular on the iOS, snagging the #2 game spot of all time on metacritic. So when iBlast Moki 2 was announced, everyone was eagerly anticipating this sequel, and for good reason. In iBlast Moki, you use bombs and other items to get Moki’s into the portal at the end of each level. The physics are amazing, the level design is top notch, and the environments are varied, and extremely vibrant. The sequel includes even more kinds of bombs and items to help the Moki’s reach the portals, the same amazing physics, even more interesting level design, and more vibrant environments, and it takes advantage of retina and HD display. There’s also a level editor and a level sharing service thrown in for endless hours of entertainment and fun. 

In iBlast Moki 2, you’ll encounter some very interesting bombs, and you don’t need to play for hours to get into the new game mechanics. They are thrown at you almost from the beginning. Paint bombs that each have different characteristics, ropes, and balloons are some of the first you’ll see. There’s also objects that you can stick your Moki’s to in order to get them to the portals at the end of the levels. In the game, it’s your job to place bombs throughout the levels, and set them to go off at specific times in order to fling the Moki’s to the end while collecting all the flowers in each stage, and doing it as fast as you can.

Your regular bombs are the ones that you’ll really have to play with trial and error getting the timing just right, making them explode at just the right time to send your characters off in another direction. This is done easily because the level resets every time you press the stop button in the lower left corner. The paint bombs, however, are more about where you place them, and timing isn’t really an issue with these. You’re given red, green, and orange bombs. The red acts as a bouncy liquid, and once your characters or any other objects touch it, they bounce up into the air. Green bombs act as glue, making your characters stick to whatever objects get covered in the liquid when the bomb goes off, and orange bombs act as turbo speed bombs, drawing your Moki to them, and shooting them forward at faster speeds. 

Because iBlast Moki 2 is a physics-puzzle game, the physics are a huge part of it, and Godzilab has done an amazing job with them. Everything feels real, and sometimes it might seem like you’ll have to be a physics major in order to get the solutions on the first or second time through the level. I actually would not be surprised if Godzilab had some physics majors help them with this aspect of the game, as they’re done so perfectly. This, coupled with the superb level design, add a ton to the challenge of getting up on the high-score board that’s in-game in the pause menu. The top 3 scores for each level are shown, and if you’d like, you can pay 1 Moki coin, which you earn throughout the game, to see these top solutions. This, is something that’s already upsetting people. Some gamers work for hours on a level trying to get the best score they can, and then their solution, if one of the best, is saved to the server, and accessible to everyone for 1 Moki coin. Godzilab has commented on this issue, and said that they will come up with a fix for it in a future update, but until then, the best solutions for each level are there, ready to be seen by everyone, unless you play offline. This is the only bad issue I can find with iBlast Moki 2 though.

With 90 levels spread across 6 different environments, and a level editor that lets you share and download created levels, there’s pretty much endless gameplay. A cut-throat leaderboard helps immensely with the replay value, and like I’ve said, some people will spend hours with one level, and some might even spend weeks creating one. iBlast Moki 2 could very well end up being the best puzzle game in 2011, maybe even the best puzzle game for the iOS, period. The scoring mechanics are great, the graphics are cute and polished, physics are perfect, level design is mind bending, and the gameplay is endless. For $3, it’ll be pretty much impossible to find a better puzzle game out there. It’s highly recommended to fans of the genre, and new-comers to the scene alike, and is on sale for launch, so you can grab it now for a buck! The universal version is $3, and should shoot up to $5 soon. If you don’t have it yet, make sure you get it soon, because it’s going to be a game that you end up buying eventually after hearing everyone you know talk about it.

**Note: iBlast Moki 2 HD is priced at FREE for a limited time, so if you don't have it yet, you should definitely pick up this great physics puzzler!

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Review Rewind: Cubes Vs. Spheres

Cubes Vs. Spheres, the second iOS release of ShockPanda Games, hit the AppStore August 18th of last year. Since then, it's gone through only two updates, but those two updates added quite a bit to the game. 3 endless survival levels and an extra difficulty, insane, filled with 10 new levels. Each stage offers up a challenge to get a perfect, or star, rating, done by hitting a certain score, and not taking any damage throughout the stage. The endless levels also add quite a bit of replay value, and that's why it can still be found on both my iPod, and my iPad to this day. The core gameplay is so incredibly fun, that even though all you're doing is blowing up boxes with spheres, I find myself playing it for hours on end. It's definitely one title that everyone should check out.

**Note: This review was written after playing Version 1.0.

--Click here to check out the original review--

Cubes Vs. Spheres is a new 3D physics attack game by ShockPanda Games, creators of Space Bunnies, a personal favorite of mine. In it, you’re job is to fling spheres into cubes, protecting the circled area around your sphere chute. You’re given 30 levels, 10 in each difficulty of Easy, Medium, and Hard. The goal is to blow up cubes as they make their way towards you using different spheres that you can buy in the between levels shop; trying to produce huge combos by hitting cubes with bits and pieces of cubes that your spheres smack into and getting 3 stars, and a P, for “Perfect”, by not letting the cubes hit your area that‘s marked off within a circle. 

The game’s graphics are very minimal, but this makes it so that the engine can handle huge waves of cubes coming at you. The minimal graphics work so well, and look so polished, that it’s hard not to see how impressive they are while you’re playing. The level designs are great, and the structures in which the cubes come off of, and out of once they come towards you get more and more impressive as the move on. I found myself just scrolling around the levels sometimes checking out the structures, not paying attention to the cubes, and ended up with huge waves of them coming at me. It’s really a great looking game. 

You’re given 6 different spheres, that come out of a chute inside of your area. They are selectable at the bottom of the screen, and do not appear until you decide which sphere you want to fling at the cubes. There’s your regular sphere, which you can upgrade to split into 3 and 5 other spheres by tapping on the screen after you fling it at cubes, a fire sphere that explodes on impact into about 8 smaller spheres, a big black sphere that squashes cubes, and can smash through them, hitting cubes behind it, a sphere that locks on to the closest cube to your area, a freeze sphere that slows down cubes, and a decoy that draws cubes to it, exploding after a certain amount of time. You end up unlocking these with credits earned throughout the game, and need to keep buying them in order to use them. This isn’t a real problem though, because you’ll earn enough credits in each level for about 15 different spheres or more, and helps add to the strategic side of the game.

There are only 3 different cube enemies in the game. Red cubes, which you will see a lot of, black cubes, which are mixed in with the red cubes, and are more powerful, and harder to destroy, and sometimes cubes that are almost invisible. There are not very many of the invisible cubes throughout the game, but you will be checking the sides of each level just to make sure you know when they’re there or not. It would have been nice having more types of enemies, maybe enemies that are immune to some of your power-up spheres. Seeing a flaming cube that could melt your freeze spheres ice, or an assassin cube that could take out your decoy would have been awesome. But with the three enemies in the game, you get enough variety to keep you busy, and with the cubes moving differently each time you play the levels, you’ll never have the exact same experience twice. This randomized intelligent movement is great, and coupled with the GameCenter leaderboards, 3 star and P rankings, and achivements, add immensely to the replayability of the game. 

The physics in a game like this are very important, and ShockPanda Games has done an amazing job getting it just right. Seeing each cube explode when it’s hit with a sphere or bits of an exploding cube is awesome, and really nice eye candy and the spheres feel like they actually have some weight to them. The music in Cubes Vs. Spheres is fitting, minimal but kind of catchy, and fits with the atmosphere, but the effects for throwing spheres and hearing them bounce kind of made them sound like hippity hops that were filled to the extreme, and about to blow up. You are given two control schemes, one is tilt to turn, and the other is swipe to turn. Both work very well for this type of game, but there were a couple of times the screen would end up shooting upwards when I tried to fling my ball forward using the swipe controls. Not often, but it did happen. 

I’m giving Cubes Vs. Spheres 4.5 out of 5 stars, because even with it only having 3 different enemies, and experiencing a cube getting stuck way in the back of a level, unreachable, and having to replay that level, it’s an awesome game. Very well made, very polished, challenging, and a blast to play. The replayabilty is off the charts, and it’s one game that will never leave my device. For $0.99, including retina display, and being Universal, it’s a great deal. ShockPanda has definitely put a lot of time and effort into this game, and with them taking part in the Touch Arcade thread, I have no doubt that this game will get even better with only a few updates.

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Disney Fish Hooks [Disney] - FREE

As much as I hate to admit it, Disney has put out some incredibly good iOS games over the last couple years. Where’s My Water?, Puffle Launch, Breakspin, Jelly Car, Where’s my Perry?, it’s becoming harder and harder not to check it out when Disney releases a new title into the AppStore. Their most recent, Disney Fish Hooks, is a prime example of a game I didn’t think I’d like, and ended up eventually loving. What’s even more surprising, is that Fish Hooks is a physics puzzler, something I, personally, got sick of some time ago. But Fish Hooks has so much charm and that spark that keeps me coming back to it that I just can’t ignore it.

Fish Hooks is one of very few Disney original cartoons currently in production, which I guess says something. It revolves around a tiny fish Milo and his friends at Freshwater High, a school in a pet store’s aquarium. Why does this matter? Because you’ll be able to watch some cut-scenes, and unlock Milo’s friends in the game, and it’s always nice to know a little backstory, right? Anyway…

Disney Fish Hooks contains 5 worlds, with 50 levels split up between them and a bonus level in each world which, once completed, unlocks another of Milo’s friends for you to play as. Sadly, the characters do not each have separate abilities or stats, making it purely a cosmetic feature. The goal is to collect all 3 apples in each stage before making it to the exit. This is done by manipulating the environment with bubbles to send your character in different directions, bouncing off of turtle shells, and creating and popping bubbles around your character, making them stop, float up and fall down in specific areas. 

Usually, you’re able to find teeter totter type objects in each level, which can be manipulated by creating bubbles underneath either side of them. Most levels will require that you set up all of these objects before popping your characters bubble, and sending them throughout the stage. As they’re making their way around the stage, bouncing off of turtle shells, you sometimes will need to quickly tap on your character, which will create another bubble around them. This stops them in their tracks, and immediately sends them floating to the top of the screen. This is a handy mechanic when trying to make your character land on a specific turtle shell or when trying to collect an apple that isn’t on the path you’ll travel while bouncing off of the shells. As you move on through different environments, and worlds, more spiffy mechanics are added to the gameplay, like spiky coral which instantly kills you if you touch it, moving turtle shells that require timed bubble pops, anvils that smash through coral, moving coral, and more.

The 3 apples in each stage act as a 3 star ranking system. Unfortunately, there is no GameCenter support, which does take away from the drive to 3-Apple each stage. There is also no scoring system, and no timer, so if you’re not driven by the desire to collect each of the apples, there’s no real additional drive outside of that, which is unfortunate. Fish Hooks would seriously benefit from a scoring system and GameCenter integration, and it is something I hope is added to the game in a future update.

As with most games, when you start playing, it’s a little more than easy. Almost too easy actually. I was almost turned off of the game before completing the first 10 levels. But the physics, level designs, and gameplay mechanics showed more than enough potential that I made myself stick with it, and as the difficulty level gradually increased, so did the amount of enjoyment I was having while playing. 

With Disney Fish Hooks available for FREE, the only thing you’ll really risk if you check it out is time, but if you stick with it, and get through the first world, the game really starts to pick up, and becomes incredibly fun. Seeing GameCenter added in a future update would be great, and judging by Disney's past releases, and fantastic support through updates with them, I'm thinking it's a real possibility. Even if you're sick of physics-puzzlers, Fish Hooks is definitely a title worth checking out, and has the potential to be another Disney game you wind up keeping on your device. 

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Car Toons! [FDG] - $0.99/$1.99

Sometimes it seems like physics puzzlers have taken over the AppStore. Ever since the success of Angry Birds, everyone realized the potential for hooking casual gamers. But FDG, a publication/development company that we here at TAS highly respect, and that has been on a roll lately, releasing quite a few titles over the last couple months, has jumped on the physics puzzler bandwagon, and is taking it in an entirely different direction. With Blosics, Expand It!, Cover Orange, Beyond Ynth and more under their belt, they’re continuously releasing new and unique physics puzzlers on the iOS. 

Their newest release, Car Toons!, is another great example of this. With simple gameplay that can also provide a nice little challenge, it’s another physics puzzler that doesn’t follow in the footsteps of any previous iOS releases. The goal of the game is to get your good cars (ie; cop cars, ambulances, fire trucks, ect) into the parking zones while knocking any bad cars (the black cars) off of the screen. Sounds simple enough, maybe even too simple. But when you take into account the level designs, as well as the hazards and other various puzzle elements, it actually offers up a decent challenge while still remaining casual and simple enough to just jump on into when you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare. 

With 100 levels, and possible 3 star rankings on each stage, with more levels coming soon, there’s quite a bit of content. The 100 levels is split up across 9 different worlds, each with different hazards and objects as well as mechanics to help keep the game fresh. When you start out, you’re only able to touch each good car to make them start, and then touch them again to stop them. Doing this, you’ll need to knock all of the bad cars off of the platforms, and stop the cars in the correct parking spots (each parking spot’s color matches the good cars lights). As you progress through the game, disappearing platforms, the ability to jump, nitro boosters, doors that open when you drive into buttons, exploding barrels and loads more are just some of the things that you’ll end up using in order to complete levels.

The graphics and animations are very well done, with each car having a set of eyes, making the graphics pretty cutesy. But the animations really bring it all together, with wheels turning, smoke flying up from breaks, the expressions of the cars’ eyes, explosions, and more showcasing the polish of the graphics, and making the gameplay fun and entertaining. The music sounds like your typical classic 80’s pop tunes, reminiscent of an underrated nerd winning over a jock jerk in a John Hughes flick. 

Rounding it all out is GameCenter support with a leaderboard for your overall time and 23 great achievements. However, the board for time could use some tweaking, as the longer you play, the further down the board you’ll go. This could be fixed by not submitting a time until the game is completed, or by doing that as well as having leaderboards for each world, but right now, it’s pretty pointless. However, priced at $0.99 for the SD build, and $1.99 for the HD version, it’s a pretty unique casual puzzler, and one that fans of puzzle games should definitely check out. With the support that FDG has given their previous releases, I have complete confidence that the leaderboard issue will be sorted out and know that more levels will definitely be included in the future. Another great release to throw on the list that FDG is quickly building up. 

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