Adjacent, an Alchemy-like puzzler from TwinPekes Software, is a fun little gem that we discovered in the app store. Available for more than two months now, this app offers an enjoyable strategic experience with some great options to aid you in honing your thinking and spatial skills.
Adjacent presents you with a 12 x 8 grid of ninety-six squares upon which you are tasked to place 72 tiles of differing colors and symbols. Each placed tile must share either quality (or both) with any and all adjacent tiles. There are 6 different colors and 6 possible symbols. So, a green tile with a house symbol can only be placed next to tiles that are green and/or have a house symbol. Therefore, a square surrounded by at least 3 different colors or 3 different symbols renders that square unusable as there will be a mismatch between a placed tile and one or more adjacent tiles. You must strategically place tiles in ways that limit this problem and leave you open to as many possible tile variations as possible. It sounds fairly simple, but covering 75% of the board within the given limits can be a tricky task.
Each placed tile earns a score based on its relationship to the adjacent tiles. Bonus points are earned for placing tiles that share many attributes with its neighbors. The game is untimed, so there is no rush to finish, allowing for slow-paced, cerebral gameplay. You can play either of 2 difficulty levels: Apprentice (where tiles can be placed in a square without an adjacent tile) or Master (where each placed tile must be adjacent to another tile). In the Master level, there are additional restrictions to placing tiles, whereby a tile placed next to two adjacent tiles must match one by color and the other by symbol. If placed next to 3 tiles, at least one must be a color match and one must be a symbol match. Within 4 neighboring tiles, 2 must match color and 2 must match symbols. Scoring systems also differ slightly between the two difficulty levels, with greater tile scores in the Master level. There is also a neat feature called Replay Mode that allows you to replay the previous game with all tiles dispensed in the exact same order so that you can try to improve upon your previous attempt.
The game graphics are clean, with cheery pastel colors and a simplistic interface. TwinPekes chose not to include a soundtrack, other then the sound played when a tile is placed. We enjoy being able to choose our own music to listen to while playing, so this is not an issue. Touch control is utilized in selecting menu options and placing tiles. The accelerometer is not used, so you could play lying down just as easily as sitting or standing. We were able to complete both the Apprentice level and Master level without too much difficulty on our initial playthroughs, yet enjoyed the game immensely. The rules are simple enough for anyone to learn and people of all ages should find Adjacent to be an enjoyable challenge.
There are a couple of games in the app store similar to Adjacent, most notably Shih Tao ($1.99). However, we preferred the overall look of Adjacent. With an introductory price of $0.99, there is no reason not to give it a shot. Adjacent earns our 5-Dimple seal of approval.
Adjacent gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
