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game reviews

Dwice resembles Tetris in that it has objects cascading down the screen. In this case it’s symbols: circles, pentagrams, squares, triangles and the like.

Alexey Pajitnov will always be remembered as the designer of Tetris, one of the most memorable puzzle games ever created. None of the three games that have recently been published by Wildsnake Software come close to being as elegant as Tetris, but they are all interesting in their own way.

Dwice (iOS, Windows) resembles Tetris in that it has objects cascading down the screen. In this case it's symbols: circles, pentagrams, squares, triangles and the like. You use a fingertip to select a symbol, then drag it around to touch other similar symbols, clearing them from the screen. The level ends if you mismatch, by dragging a circle into a square for example, or if the falling symbols, which slowly increase in speed, reach the bottom. Dwice is fast and requires rapid response more than puzzle solving skills.

You can take your time solving the various levels in Marbly Deluxe (iOS), but your score and achievements are based on speed. In this game you have groups of coloured marbles on a grid and by tapping open squares you need to move the marbles into lines of three or more in order to clear them from the board. The fewer moves you need to clear the board the better your score. If you strand any marbles you fail the level and need to start again.

Symbol Link (iOS) is the most recent release and is my favourite of the three. It presents pairs of symbols on a grid and your objective is to trace the paths that will connect like symbols while allowing paths for the other symbol pairs to link up. Paths cannot cross, so you often have to visualize how to get different connections to wind around each other, and the ideal route is often the one that starts moving in the opposite direction. Your best scores come when you isolate inevitable paths that the game automatically traces for you.

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