Reiner Knizia’s Topas, another in a long line of Knizia titles available on the iPhone and iPod touch, has been released by Ludicious Games and is now live in the app store. With its domino-style graphics and strategic game play, Topas is an outstanding addition to the “easy-to-play, difficult-to-master” family of games that occupy so much of our free time.
Reiner Knizia’s Topas Pros:
- Clean interface. The colors are vibrant and bold, the background is cheery, and the whole atmosphere is light-hearted and fun
- Replay value is terrific, as we spent the better part of the day hooked on this game
- Once you’ve got a feel for the strategy involved, the brilliance of the game shines through
Reiner Knizia’s Topas Cons:
- No background music
Topas offers three modes of play, each with a great twist that makes it difficult to choose which one we want to play at any given time. The basic premise encompasses all three modes: place domino-like tiles upon a 6 x 6 grid in an effort to line up gems for maximum scoring potential. Tiles only score points based on the number of contiguous gems in a column or row. Points are summed for extending a single column or row, but extending multiple columns or rows with the same tile results in multiplying the sums of any extended columns or rows, which can lead to significant point totals. There are three special rules that are also present in each game mode. Each tile must fit entirely within the limits of the board without overlapping any other tiles, every tile must be adjacent to a tile already on the board, and you cannot place a tile if it results in a sum of 8 or more matching gems in a row or column.
Arcade mode tasks you with placing 36 tiles upon the board to advance to the next level. Of course, in a 6 x 6 square, there isn’t room for 36 two-square tiles. Therefore, aligning tiles with exactly 7 matching gems will remove those tiles from the board, opening up space for subsequent tile placement. Moving to the next level gives you a fresh board and 36 new tiles. The game ends when you run out of valid space before laying all of your tiles. Your cumulative score for all completed levels can be uploaded to the global leaderboard. Weakest Link mode tasks you with playing 4 quick games with only 8 tiles in each game. Columns and rows of 7 gems do not disappear, but you must still adhere to the “maximum of 7 gems” rule for placing tiles. You receive a score for each of the 4 games and the second lowest score becomes your final score. Color mode requires you to earn 10 points in each color to advance to the next level, which simply clears the board and continues adding to your score while using the remaining tiles. Once again, no tiles will disappear, but you can choose from three available tiles instead of being stuck with the tile you are given, as in the other modes. The game ends when you are unable to achieve a score of 10 in each color before running out of valid space or you’ve used up all 36 tiles. All special rules still apply.
Graphically, the game looks very nice. The interface is clean, the colors are vibrant and bold, the background is cheery, and the whole atmosphere is light-hearted and fun. There is no background music, but there are a few generic sound effects. Controls are simple to use. Drag a tile from the bottom of the screen onto the board, tapping with a second finger to rotate. Release your finger to place the tile. It couldn’t be easier. We did have occasional trouble pulling the tile from its starting position, requiring a few re-drags, but nothing major.
Replay value is terrific, as we spent the better part of the day hooked on this game. Agon is used for leaderboards, which adds that extra bit of motivation to play again. Topas has all the trappings of a Reiner Knizia game, so fans of his work will not be disappointed. It takes a few games to really get a sense of how to achieve high scores and where best to place your tiles, but once you’ve got a feel for the strategy involved, the brilliance of the game shines through. Topas is available for $2.99 and, in our opinion, it’s worth the money. Reiner Knizia continues to impress, and we can’t wait to get our hands on future titles that are sure to be as engaging as this 5-Dimple standout.
