Most puzzle games on the iOS platform are built to be time-killers, nothing more than simple little experiences that make your wait for the morning commute a little more bearable. Sure, they’re a sight better than twiddling your thumbs, but deep down, puzzle fans crave something that isn’t just meant to kill five minutes.
Well, be careful what you wish for, because Puzzlejuice is here, and it won’t be satisfied by your offerings of mere minutes. By the time it’s through with you, you’ll miss your bus, forget an appointment, anger the queue at the supermarket, and run into stationary objects with alarming frequency. But you’ll be too engrossed in this gem of a title to care.
Puzzlejuice starts in a deceptively simple fashion. Blocks fall from above and have to be stacked in an orderly fashion in order to avoid filling the top of the screen. By itself, it’s a tried-and-true formula well-established with the likes of Tetris. At first glance, it’s a disappointingly plain clone of a game most of us have played by now.
Fortunately, there’s an ace up its sleeve. As soon as a line is made, or three or more tiles of the same color connect, they’re transformed into letters. Here’s where things get interesting; in order to clear those ever-climbing towers of blocks, players must connect more than two letters together to make a word, Boggle-style.
It’s an intense, fast-paced experience that asks you to flex your cognitive muscles. With three modes cheekily named Hard, Euro Extreme and Zen Extreme, along with leaderboards and Twitter functionality, Puzzlejuice is a well-rounded experience that is easily worth your time and money.
You can find Puzzlejuice on the App Store for… 99 cents?! At that price, it’s practically an impulse buy! Well, if any of this sounds the least bit intriguing to you, you’d do well to pick it up.
[vimeo 35236358]
