no dpad

Have you heard of the match-three genre?  Of course you have.  A conservative count puts the number of match three games in the app store at above fifty.  As in the other games, with a grid of different pieces in Friki Tricks, you need to move items around to match three of the same icons in a row.  This causes those pieces to disappear, and new ones to fall into the playing field.  But will there be enough in Friki Tricks to hold your interest in this saturated genre?

Likes

Art style: The presentation in this game is solid.  Right from the intro as the title sequence changes from black and white to colour, the art style impressed me.  Characters in the game are unique and colourful, with a cartoonish look.  The game pieces and art in between levels are also impressive and makes it  really feel like a quality title.

Bonuses: Besides the usual playing and progressing to the next level, the matching gameplay is broken up by a spinning wheel between levels.  While there’s not much to do but hit to stop it from spinning and collect your prize, you can get yourself quite a few different bonuses to mix up the gameplay.  It was a nice break from the matching game and I found myself looking forwards to it and the end of each level.

Dislikes

Not challenging: I didn’t find the gameplay particularly engaging.  For one, this was because the genre of match three is overdone.  But I also found it to be a bit too easy.  Matches were always obvious and quick to do.  I’d get stuck the odd time, but then by dropping a bomb it returned to being easy right away again.

While there was nothing innovative about the game itself, I thought the art style was unique and interesting.  I always looked forward to the bonuses between rounds, and the easy gameplay made it ideal to pull out for quick rounds.  If you haven’t tired of the genre, give Friki Tricks a try.

Friki Tricks was developed by W3 Software and is available for the introductory price of $0.99, with a price raise to $2.99 later on.  I played version 1.0 on an iPod Touch 2G, going through each game mode multiple times, in different sessions.  There’s also a free lite version available.  This review was written with the current price point of $0.99 in mind.

Tags: $0.99, Friki Tricks, Match Three, W3 Software, Worth A Look