If you’re familiar with the game Tetris which was originally released in 1984, you know it’s a very simple, action-based puzzle game that’s very easy to learn, yet extremely difficult to master. Tetris is also endlessly re-playable, suitable for all ages, and extremely addicting.
One of the elements that have made Tetris so popular on a global scale is that it can be played for minutes at a time, or can keep the player entertained for hours on end. Tetris starts off relatively easy, yet gets increasingly more difficult as you progress to higher levels. Instead of relying on flashy graphics, music, and sound effects to provide non-stop visual eye and ear candy, Tetris relies on genuinely good gameplay to entertain and challenge players.
By January 2010, Tetris sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, and the game was being played on computers, hand-held gaming devices, PDAs, tablets, online gaming networks, and cell phones. Of course, a version of Tetris (from Electronic Arts) is available for the iPhone and iPad from the App Store ($0.99).
Another brand new game that’s equally as simplistic, yet fun and challenging as Tetris, and that has all of the same qualities in terms of re-playability and addictiveness, is called Dots: A Game About Connecting. It’s a free game from Betaworks One that’s now also available from the App Store, although optional in-app purchases are available.
Unlike other games with in-app purchases, however, they’re not required to truly enjoy the game. Thus, playing Dots can be a genuinely free gameplay experience on either the iPhone or iPad, and it’s suitable for all ages.
Like Tetris, Dots foregoes flashy graphics but relies on fun and addicting gameplay to entertain people. The game’s original concept and simplistic interface work very well. Dots relies on your iPhone or iPad’s touch screen to easily interact with the game.
The rules to play Dots are simple. Displayed on the screen are 36 colored dots (six rows of six). The dots appear in five different colors. Using your finger, swipe up, down, left, right or at right-angles in order to connect same-colored dots and make them disappear from the grid. (You can not connect dots diagonally.) When dots are connected, they immediately disappear from the screen and new randomly colored dots drop down, thus keeping 36 dots on the screen at all times.
Each time two, three, four, or more dots are connected, the player earns one point for each dot that disappears. The objective is to collect as many points as possible during each:60 second round. Points can then be exchanged for in-game power-ups that allow you to remove more dots from the screen faster during each round. These power-ups, which include Time Stops, Shrinkers, and Expanders, can also be acquired as optional in-app purchases (starting at $0.99). Built into the game is the ability to share your high scores with others via Twitter and Facebook.
Yes, the game starts off easy, but it does get increasingly more challenging as you progress. At the same time, it can be played for just one minute at a time, or keep you busy for several hours at a time. It becomes very hard to put the game down since you’ll constantly want to try to beat your own high scores, as well as the published high scores achieved by others. Two or more people can also compete using the same device by taking turns in between one-minute rounds.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of games available from the App Store. It’s very rare, however, for a new game to be introduced that’s original, that has long-lasting gameplay, and that’s truly fun to play. Dots is one of those few games that are well worth playing. And best of all, it’s an action-based puzzle game that’s free!
