Tetravex

I am a complete moron, and I’m reminded of this every time I start playing this very slick and very challenging puzzle game! Tetravex is like something out of an IQ test… it could very well be, I don’t know… and if you’re like me and have the IQ of a doorknob it can be pretty tough depending on the difficulty level you’re tackling.

The object of Tetravex is to arrange a set of tiles so that each colored side of a tile is touching a like-colored side of another tile. Don’t try to get cute and put unmatching colors next to each other – your attempt will be met with a red X in your intended landing spot. Likewise, the game is also nice enough to display a welcoming green square when you’re in the process of making a legal move.

The very first time I played Tetravex I thought I was man enough to tackle the medium (4×4) level right away and, to put it mildly, I wasn’t! After staring blankly at all the pretty colors for a while, I messed around with the Simple and Easy levels (2×2, 3×3) to get a feel for how the puzzles are solved. After that little warmup, figuring out the 4×4 puzzle was still hard but it was also fun and addictive enough that I played for almost two hours straight. I even attempted the 5×5 but it made me cry and I don’t want to talk about it.

I tapped around every corner of Tetravex and the only issue that I ran into was some occasional difficulty in getting the tiles to cooperate, especially when moving them into the top row of the puzzle near the edge of the iPhone screen. This didn’t happen a lot and it certainly isn’t enough to disrupt the game, but hopefully it can be addressed in a future update. As long as you can see the green square that signals “yes, you can put that tile here” you should be fine.

Overall this game is impressive, not just in the gameplay and varying levels of difficulty but also in all the little details that are so telling of polished, high-quality game development. When you select your play level by swiping through a thumbnail carousel of each puzzle instead of just pushing a button, you know you’re playing a game created by professionals who don’t mess around and Futrell Software is clearly in that class.

The individual hi-score boards for each level, the cascading tile transitions, the cool little fireworks display when you win a game… it’s all top-notch and for just $3.99 I think Tetravex is worth buying, especially if you’re puzzle-crazy and need a new challenge for that big brain of yours.

edit: Something I forgot to address in this review is sound. Tetravex has none! Hopefully some sound effects will be added in a future update – still a great game though even if it’s silent.