Reiner Knizia’s Color Conquest, a tile-laying, color-matching puzzler from United Soft Media, is now available from the app store. A simple concept at its core, Color Conquest requires smart play and a good deal of luck to find high-scoring success.
Reiner Knizia’s Color Conquest Pros:
- Single Play and Campaign options
- Slick, industrial look with relaxing soundtrack
- Simple tap or drag control mechanics
- Plenty of opportunity for strategic play
- GameCenter integration for leaderboards and achievements
Reiner Knizia’s Color Conquest Cons:
- Text font is nearly unreadable
- High scores require a good deal of luck
With Single Play and Campaign options, you’ll have no trouble diving right into the challenge set before you. Upon a 4 x 4 grid, you will place 16 tiles to complete a single game. Each side of each tile is colored, and the goal is to match colored sides to create long, contiguous blocks of color. The more tiles you utilize, the higher your point totals. Each combination of tiles from 2 to 16 has a specific point value, and points are awarded after each tile placement. In this way, you are rewarded for continuing to build upon blocks of color. Your first pair will score the 2-block score, the next tile placement that continues the color block will earn a 3-block score, and so forth until you run out of room or the color block is surrounded by other colors. The edges of the board may also have lighted areas that allow you to extend your color block, though the edge portions do not factor into determining the scores. Single Play is a one-and-done attempt to set a high score, while Campaign requires you to meet a certain point threshold to continue to the next round. Your previous scores carry over, so great success on one level can help to offset a poor showing on another. There is a good deal of strategy involved, though a lot of luck is required to get you the pieces you need when you need them.
Graphically, the presentation is colorful, with a slick industrial feel. The text is written in some type of weird block format that makes it extremely difficult to read, and differentiating numbers like 8 and 0 is near impossible. Your current tile appears in the bottom center of the screen, and the next tile to come up appears at your left, so you can anticipate your next move. Tapping on the current tile will rotate it in place, and dragging it to a square on the board will permanently place it, as will tapping an empty square. The soundtrack has a dreamy, ethereal quality that’s relaxing.
Replay value is decent, as you can always challenge yourself to best your previous scores. GameCenter integration brings global leaderboards and over 4 dozen achievements into the fray. There are 3-color and 4-color game options that act as levels of difficulty. At $0.99, Reiner Knizia’s Color Conquest is a clever, 4-Dimple offering.
