Fliparoni

by Eric March on November 5, 2008 at 2:21 pm

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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App Name: Fliparoni
Developer: Squires Studios, Inc.
Category: Logic & Puzzle Games

Anecdote time.

Back in 1995, during the battle of the then-next generation video game consoles between the Atari Jaguar, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn (3DO was pretty much on the outs at that point), Atari released a CD-ROM attachment for the Jaguar affectionately referred to by users as “The Toilet” due to its very throne-like shape, particularly with the lid raised.  Back then, the buzzword of the day was “multimedia,” and to that end, the JagCD included a pack-in game called Vid Grid.  It was a simple tile-based jigsaw puzzle where you had to pick up and move pieces around, but the hook was that you had to do it to a running music video — and these were no cheap videos, either; they featured A-list rock bands of the day like Aerosmith, Van Halen and Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Sliding pieces of the puzzle around to restore the video to normal while it was playing was a challenging feat, especially when you only had ’til the end of the song to do it — but it was very addictive and a very cool concept at the time.  Bleeding edge tech, this was.

There have been games inspired by the same concept since, but this, I do believe, is the first I’ve seen for the iPhone.  There are no big name rock bands or anything — in fact, there’s no sound at all — but you nevertheless have to rearrange tiles to restore a running video to its rightful place. (Still images are also available for those that find the videos too challenging.)

But there’s a twist here — several quite literal ones, in fact.  Merely sliding the pieces around isn’t good enough for Squires Studios, oh no.  Pieces can now be flipped vertically or horizontally, and they may additionally be rotated.  Now you not only have to worry about whether you’d put the pieces in the right place, but you have to make sure they’re oriented properly, too.

Although it does add considerably more challenge to the genre, it isn’t actually as hard as it looks; the motion of the video gives ample clues as to orientation, so rotation and vertical orientation generally isn’t a huge problem.  The real trick comes from figuring out horizontal orientation and placements.  Once you’ve found the proper place and orientation for a piece though the game will let you know with sounds that differ from the normal sounds, and the piece will be locked in place.

The videos are very short and play back in a ping-pong loop, but they don’t need to be long, really; Vid Grid’s draw was really the music videos, but the challenge would still have existed even with short loops.  In that area Fliparoni provides quite a few videos to choose from — 22 to be exact, plus 25 still images, access to your own camera roll (unlimited fun there) and the ability to download more from within the app.  That right there is a whole lotta jigsaw puzzle action.  Sound is pretty good for what little there is, and you get used to what each sound means.

Although there really aren’t any frills here — no special effects or fancy menus or anything of the sort, I have to say that this is still a strong effort from Squires Studios.  I’m waffling on the rating here — I want to give it 5 stars, but it’s a little on the plain side.  On the other hand the plethora of built-in puzzles, the ability to use your own photos, and the ability to download more images and videos for virtually unlimited challenges really make up for it.

Oh, what the hell.  5 stars and a box of spicy papadums.

Incidentally, this is only free for a very limited time, so grab it, like, now.

UPDATE: It’ll now cost you $1.99 — which is more than reasonable for what you get.

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Posted in Games: Logic & Puzzle