Triazzle is a puzzle application, and not in my opinion a game. In Triazzle you get too choose your level of puzzle difficulty ranging from kid to level 3. You also get to choose the number of tiles in the puzzle, 9 or 16. Each tile feature three symbols that you have to match to those found on the surrounding tiles. Once you match symbols they animate beautifully. All tiles have to be placed correctly to solve the puzzle.
The game is controlled by touch, and you simply choose a tile and drag it to the position you want it in. To rotate it simply tap it. If you have placed the tile in the wrong spot you can put it back at the side of the board or in any other place by dragging it around. The controls work really well, and it is easy to move around tiles with plenty of space on the sides of the board. To instantly solve a puzzle you can shake your iPhone.
There is a hint system helping you to find the correct tile for a particular spot. You don’t get to know the correct rotation though, but it is generally easy to figure out yourself.
The production values for Triazzle are really high with nice colourful graphics and good sound with both music and ambience. Having the symbols come to life is really neat, and especially the little turtles are adorable.
To the problem with Triazzle: it is not a game. There is no time limit, and you can choose whichever puzzle difficulties you want to at the first time you play it. This means you never feel any progression that is really important in puzzle games, a great example of how to do this is the academy found in KENKEN. I am a bit daft when it comes to shape based puzzles meaning I have a bit of a challenge with the puzzles in Triazzle. But being able to just shake the iPhone to complete means that I do just that, there is no penalty in solving a puzzle that way. Then on the other hand there is no reward either. There are no statistics being saved about your performance meaning you can’t see your progression that way either.
To get a second opinion I let my wife try out Triazzle as well, and she proved to be really good at it. After thirty minutes she had worked her way up to level three puzzles with 16 tiles. After another ten minutes she had beaten all the game could throw at her in terms of challenge, and I got my iPhone back. She stated that yes it had been fun but now it felt pointless to play further. She could have beaten it quicker if I hadn’t insisted on her playing the levels in order.
There are no high scores, no statistics, no achievements and no unlockables in Triazzle meaning that what you see the first time you start it up is what you get. And what you get is a really good-looking puzzle application. And I think it is a really good puzzle application worthy of your time and money if you want a puzzle to spend your spare time with. But I have to rate Triazzle as a game, and it falls really short out of a gaming perspective. The developer Dreamship Ltd. can turn Triazzle into a game by including a sense of progression, time limits and daily puzzles.
If you are looking for a puzzle application for your iPhone this is probably the best you can find in the App Store. As the puzzles are randomized you won’t run out of them. But if you are a gamer looking for a puzzle game you will feel disappointed with Triazzle.
Final Rating
