Waterways is Taito’s latest edition to the App Store.  Currently offered for $2.99, this is one game in which you’ll want to choose your steps wisely.

Centered on a flooding game board, Waterways puts you in control of a heroic cow named Patch. Patch definitely has drains on the brain.  Work your way across a series of bridges to shut off the flooding water supply.  The difficulty rises as fast as the water since you are limited as to how many times bridges can be raised or lowered.

The game employs the accelerometer to flush the board. Flush by tilting the device in the direction of four colored arrows on screen. This will actuate bridges that are the color of that arrow. For instance, tilt the device up in the direction of the red arrow to raise/lower the red bridges.  The trick is that Waterways only gives a certain number of flushes to begin.  So you need to plan your movement beforehand to make it to the water supply or a nearby lever.  Levers will reset your flush allotment.

Move Patch around by touching in the direction you desire. We had a hard time getting this little guy to go where we wanted him. This was partially due to his small size. He was hidden behind our finger when we touched near him. Ideally, we would like to see Taito add a d-pad in a future update.

Waterways offers an overworld where you can navigate Patch through 20 unique levels. Music is endearing and industrial sounding – good theme for a plumbing-oriented game.  Visuals are clean and cartoony, which works well with the intent of Waterways.  Another interesting feature is the Tiltcam mode which sways the board in the direction you tilt.  In the end, the AppSmile team found it easier with this turned off.

At the current price point, we’d expect Waterways to be a flawless puzzler. Despite its control hiccups, the game does present some challenging levels, zippy music, and colorful graphics.  We have Waterways grazing around a 3-dimple rating.

Waterways gets our AppSmile 3-Dimple rating: