pluto6
07-03-2009, 10:49 AM
Review / Impressions of Trak4
Trak4 is pattern matching game that uses triangles within squares that are rotated to match a pattern that is presented as the goal. While the premise is extremely simple, the execution is not. The game requires concentration, and memory abilities, and as such introduces mental challenge to the game. Adding to this, is a timer, so you can't just take your time with the pattern.
The presentation is simple and elegant. The menu choices are obvious. The tutorial included is simple, yet complete explanation of the game.
Game Play - there are 3 difficulty settings, easy, medium, and hard. The difficulty settings do not change the actual puzzle shapes you solve, rather they make the moving spotlight smaller. For me, after getting the hang of how the puzzles are solved (like tangrams, there are some great patterns that are quickly and easily formed once you play for a while), I found no difference really in the difficulty settings for being able to solve. I either knew the pattern or not, and being on easy or hard did not seem to matter. There are also 3 selectable time settings - 30, 60, and 90 seconds. I found myself leaving the time on 90, because I could finish with less problems, and you get more points. There is no point advantage to being on a harder difficulty level, or using a shorter time necessary to solve. Unless there are 6 high score boards (which I would not recommend), players have no incentive to use the shorter, "harder" settings except for personal pleasure.
There is overall a pretty good mix of patterns, not sure how many, but after only a couple of games, there are repeats. I did not notice repeats within a game itself, but there were same patterns that were either mirrored, or turned on the side.
While playing, hitting each tile turns it 1/4 turn clockwise, and I never had any clicks that did not translate, although I frequently went 1 too far since I was rapidly tapping, and then had to do 3 more taps to get it where I needed to be. I am not sure if there is an easy way to be able to have the tile turn back, but for advanced players, this could be necessary to trim a few seconds.
There are 2 buttons - "Hint" and "Solve" under the small picture of the pattern you are supposed to match. Pressing hint gives you a complete picture of the pattern for a few seconds, before becoming cloaked again. You only have 1 opportunity to use the hint, once done, you either finish, or lose. Solve tells the game you think you have it right and compares your pattern against the goal. If correct you are treated to a "Winner" and "tada" sound, and points are added. If incorrect, you get a broken glass sound, and a big "you lose." A nice piece of polish is that tiles that are correct are whole and intact, while tiles that are incorrect are broken appearing, and somewhat greyed. Great for seeing where that 1 or 2 tiles (or more) that you were wrong on.
Score is added up based on time left, and whether the hint was used. In its current form, it is smarter to stay on easy, and 90 seconds, as you get more points for time left, because you actually score lower choosing to solve in a shorter time frame.
There is one high score board that pops up, regardless of whether you make it or not. If you get a high score, enter your name to see yourself on the list!
Pros: - High level of polish.
- Layout is clean, unclutter, straight forward.
- Colors that are chosen are quite nice. Red and white in their pure form would be too stark for me, and instead it looks like an ivory and red-orange - in any case quite pleasing to my eye. Since people have brought up color deficiency, color blindness - this game is perfect for them!
- I think it would appeal to both children and adults.
- The game does not use up a lot of battery. I was able to play for about 1 hour, and had minimal change in my battery meter. Great for trips!
Cons - Need LOTS of puzzles. Consider making larger grid surfaces 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 for easy, medium, and hard.
-Scores need to reflect both level of difficulty and time to solve
- High Scorer should be defaulted to last person entered.
- Consider a free style mode for people to design, save, upload puzzles. Will add much to challenge and replayability.
I see that save state / resume is being initiated, and a pause in the next update. Both good things.
Overall impression is that I really like this game. Detractors are mentioned above, but I think that this has the makings of a superstar as mentioned above. At this point I would give it 3 - 3.5 stars, but I can tell you it is going to be on my iPhone for a long time - I love these type of puzzles / games.
Trak4 is pattern matching game that uses triangles within squares that are rotated to match a pattern that is presented as the goal. While the premise is extremely simple, the execution is not. The game requires concentration, and memory abilities, and as such introduces mental challenge to the game. Adding to this, is a timer, so you can't just take your time with the pattern.
The presentation is simple and elegant. The menu choices are obvious. The tutorial included is simple, yet complete explanation of the game.
Game Play - there are 3 difficulty settings, easy, medium, and hard. The difficulty settings do not change the actual puzzle shapes you solve, rather they make the moving spotlight smaller. For me, after getting the hang of how the puzzles are solved (like tangrams, there are some great patterns that are quickly and easily formed once you play for a while), I found no difference really in the difficulty settings for being able to solve. I either knew the pattern or not, and being on easy or hard did not seem to matter. There are also 3 selectable time settings - 30, 60, and 90 seconds. I found myself leaving the time on 90, because I could finish with less problems, and you get more points. There is no point advantage to being on a harder difficulty level, or using a shorter time necessary to solve. Unless there are 6 high score boards (which I would not recommend), players have no incentive to use the shorter, "harder" settings except for personal pleasure.
There is overall a pretty good mix of patterns, not sure how many, but after only a couple of games, there are repeats. I did not notice repeats within a game itself, but there were same patterns that were either mirrored, or turned on the side.
While playing, hitting each tile turns it 1/4 turn clockwise, and I never had any clicks that did not translate, although I frequently went 1 too far since I was rapidly tapping, and then had to do 3 more taps to get it where I needed to be. I am not sure if there is an easy way to be able to have the tile turn back, but for advanced players, this could be necessary to trim a few seconds.
There are 2 buttons - "Hint" and "Solve" under the small picture of the pattern you are supposed to match. Pressing hint gives you a complete picture of the pattern for a few seconds, before becoming cloaked again. You only have 1 opportunity to use the hint, once done, you either finish, or lose. Solve tells the game you think you have it right and compares your pattern against the goal. If correct you are treated to a "Winner" and "tada" sound, and points are added. If incorrect, you get a broken glass sound, and a big "you lose." A nice piece of polish is that tiles that are correct are whole and intact, while tiles that are incorrect are broken appearing, and somewhat greyed. Great for seeing where that 1 or 2 tiles (or more) that you were wrong on.
Score is added up based on time left, and whether the hint was used. In its current form, it is smarter to stay on easy, and 90 seconds, as you get more points for time left, because you actually score lower choosing to solve in a shorter time frame.
There is one high score board that pops up, regardless of whether you make it or not. If you get a high score, enter your name to see yourself on the list!
Pros: - High level of polish.
- Layout is clean, unclutter, straight forward.
- Colors that are chosen are quite nice. Red and white in their pure form would be too stark for me, and instead it looks like an ivory and red-orange - in any case quite pleasing to my eye. Since people have brought up color deficiency, color blindness - this game is perfect for them!
- I think it would appeal to both children and adults.
- The game does not use up a lot of battery. I was able to play for about 1 hour, and had minimal change in my battery meter. Great for trips!
Cons - Need LOTS of puzzles. Consider making larger grid surfaces 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 for easy, medium, and hard.
-Scores need to reflect both level of difficulty and time to solve
- High Scorer should be defaulted to last person entered.
- Consider a free style mode for people to design, save, upload puzzles. Will add much to challenge and replayability.
I see that save state / resume is being initiated, and a pause in the next update. Both good things.
Overall impression is that I really like this game. Detractors are mentioned above, but I think that this has the makings of a superstar as mentioned above. At this point I would give it 3 - 3.5 stars, but I can tell you it is going to be on my iPhone for a long time - I love these type of puzzles / games.