Tumble Jumble, Clickgamer’s new physics-based puzzler, has been released in the app store. Drawing inspiration from games like Tetris and Topple, Tumble Jumble offers frustratingly simple gameplay in an equally attractive package.
Tumble Jumble plays a lot like Tetris. Various shapes appear at the top of the screen and, after a moment, begin falling into the playing field. Your task is to fit all of these shapes into the gaming area without disturbing the lasers or the radioactive elements or any number of other obstacles that serve to give you fits. Unlike Tetris, nothing that is placed disappears. You have a limited amount of packable space and a specific number of objects to pack into that space. If your shape pile juts past the laser at the screen top, you lose. Also, like Topple, the pieces are affected by physics, so improper placement can result in big gaps or send pieces tumbling toward the lasers, requiring a restart. This is often the most difficult aspect, as slight miscalculations can wipe out a whole board’s worth of hard work.
Only trial-and-error will assist you in finding the most appropriate way to jam everything into the screen. You will fail, and fail often. Fortunately, restarting a level is nearly instantaneous. The upper left corner of the screen does preview the next half-dozen shapes, so planning can be accomplished in a somewhat limited capacity. The order of shapes in any given level is always the same, so you‘ll know what to expect each time you play. There are also several special objects that will appear through the course of the game. Some objects shrink a piece, others destroy a piece, and some expand a piece. Used strategically, these will help you to achieve your goal. Waste them and you’ll be stuck for a while. You can control your current object until it comes in to contact with another piece or an obstacle, at which point physics takes over. There are 64 levels across 4 difficulties. You’ll need to complete some levels to unlock others.
The graphics look great, as the shapes are reminiscent of those found in Topple. Clearly, a lot of care went into the look and feel of the game. Completing one level leads to cut scenes introducing the next level and any new pieces or obstacles that you will encounter. The soundtrack is a bit unique, including some odd sound effects throughout. Some people may like it; others will loathe it. The controls are touch-based, but they do not utilize touch and drag, as we incorrectly assumed. There are left, down, and right buttons at the screen bottom, as well as left and right rotation buttons just above these. While they work adequately, we can’t help but feel that some sort of dual-stick control scheme would work better, where one stick controls the left, right, down while the other rotates the pieces. As it stands, we often mistakenly hit the left or right movement buttons when we mean to rotate and vice versa. An updated scheme, or the inclusion of a touch-and-drag, would be nice, even if that scheme might cause us to obscure our view with our finger.
Tumble Jumble also includes some nice features, such as a level editor, Facebook connectivity, and global leaderboards to compare your successes with those of other players. The level editor is always a welcome addition in any game, as it adds tons of replayability, allowing for virtually unlimited levels as you create and share your own content with others. Tumble Jumble sells for $0.99, an attractive price for a very solid 4-Dimple puzzler.
Tumble Jumble gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating:
