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Review for BrickSlider CE

by Adam Clark

BrickSlider review from PDAgold

INTRODUCTION

If your tired of all the Tetris clones, really bored with batting your balls in Arkanoid clones and are fed up playing with the family jewels. Why not give it rest, try something different, enter Brick Slider (in a blue jump suit and red cape) from Ball Shooter Games.

Brick slider is a new type of brain bending puzzle game that breaks the mould, cast by other mediocre puzzle titles. See why Brick Slider was nominated a PocketPC Magazine 'Best Software Awards' Finalist in 2003.

Gameplay

With Brick Slider you are presented with a 10 by 10 grid the present game level is displayed on the top left with the score displayed on the top right, bottom left is 'Menu' control, central bottom is the (very important) undo button, that undoes the last three moves and on the bottom right are the sound controls.

The game field is surrounded by different coloured bricks set three deep. On the grid are displayed a number of these same coloured bricks (the amounts and configuration vary depending on the game level played.) The bricks directly facing the 'singular bricks that are already positioned in the middle of the field all have direction arrows on them, indicating that these bricks can be slide over to the pre-positioned bricks (in the direction of the arrow) so allowing a new set of bricks to be highlighted with arrows that could be brought in to play.

The trick is to place three or more bricks side by side (NOT diagonal!), which will then result in those bricks being removed from play. Unfortunately the bricks you want to play are not always available immediately (this is where the skill comes in), so in order to present the required bricks (located on the outer, three deep wall) you'll have to remove the obstructing blocks first, which will probably require a combination movement worthy of a master safe cracker. To make things easier on the later levels a few random bricks are also thrown in e.g.

The bomb explodes (it's self and nearby bricks on contact)
The mystery brick, which will randomly change the brick it comes into contact with
The vortex, which changes the direction of travel of any brick it comes in to contact with
The virus, which will changes the colour of nearby bricks (and it's self)
Money, which adds to the score
The lock, ?!?

The goal of Brick Slider is pretty straight forward, remove all bricks from the 10 by 10 grid (so much easier said than done). The game is over when the board is full of bricks or no other bricks can be played.

As you progress through the levels of Brick Slider the learning curve nicely progresses, until you start to feel that decoding the enigma machine was a doddle in comparison to your present level.

Graphics

The presentation of Brick Slider is great as can be expected from a Ball Shooter Production with a satisfying feel. The graphics are clear and very well presented; an excellent use of colour is used in defining each brick, with the overall animation playing very smooth (on an Ipaq 3970). As with most puzzle games don't be expecting a wide variety of backdrops or changes in the display as this is left solely down to the puzzle element (e.g. a chess board doesn't suddenly change patterns or colours half way through).

Brick Slider has the additional bonus of being able to select one of three skin types to suit yourself and your device, the options are Modern, Retro, and Monochrome. As of yet no options are available to create your own skin creations.

Controls

The in game controls (as tested on an Ipaq 3970) are very simple and consist of tapping the stylus on a brick in order to slide it next to the pre-positioned brick. Brick Slider can only be controlled by a stylus as there is no hardware button reconfiguration option, Personally I feel that a hardware button options isn't appropriate anyway.

Sound

The sound track for Brick Slider is none existent, which is quite disappointing as a pleasant relaxing ambient tune to ease the aching grey cells would have fitted in nicely with Brick Sliders premise and if I did choose to play Brick Slider at length the lack of a sound track would be of concern, causing me to raid my limited ambient CD collection.

The Sounds in Brick slider are left to the effects and include your basic run of the mill effects with pops, tinks and generally the type of effects you expect from a mid-eighties fruit machine. Personally I didn't find this to be a draw back, as I tend to play my games while travelling and usually keep the sound on a minimal level (if at all) and the options to turn off either the sound effects/music or both is readily available on the main screen if needed.

Options

From the main menu

- Start
- Options (sound on/off and game skin mode (as displayed)
- Records
- Help
- Exit

Selecting Menu on Brick Slider's in game screen presents the following options;

- Restart level
- Exit menu
- Exit game
- Resume game

Tapping Help on Brick Slider's in game screen presents;

- Game rules (essential, but brief reading)
- Credits (programmer and game specifics)
- Our games (a brief resume of alternative game by the developer, very novel)
- Registration (all important)
- Resume game

Replay Value

Brick Slider is an EXTREMELY addictive game, which is both challenging, and compelling and at times it can be down right frustrating due to it's complexity. The different levels of game play provide a real test of logic and planning providing an ample exercise for anyone's grey matter.

As you may expect with a title that is a completely new idea, Brick Slider takes a little bit of getting used too (can you imagine the inventor of chess trying to sell his first game!). However after a few games it will quite likely have you by the 'short and curlies'.

As mentioned Brick Slider doesn't have a great variety of changes just like Tetris the first screen is the same as all the other screens, the compelling piece is the puzzle element and game play.

Ordinarily I'm mainly a huge fan of games requiring mass death and destruction on a global scale, however every now and again along comes a shining light that illuminates a dark and cluttered genre. In this reviewers mind Brick Slider is such a title. Whether you're a fan of the Tetris clones or just puzzle games in general then your on to a sure fire winner. But as Brick Slider doesn't require huge amounts of button bashing and is very complex it may not appeal to everyone with a bloodlust, but in what is left of this reviewers mind (I may not have caused mass death and destruction but I certainly killed a few brain cells after playing Brick slider!) I suggest everyone give Brick Slider a go.

CONCLUSION

Brick Slider is a must have title for puzzle players and is a pleasure to play. I won't wax lyrical any more about Brick Slider except to say this game is great, BUY IT!