Puzzle Dungeon – A Box-Pushing Hell Of Your Own Design [Review]

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puzzledungeon_art

When role-playing game heroes die, I suspect Puzzle Dungeon is what their hell looks like. Plodding music, 60 progressively tricky puzzles, and a bare-bones presentation, Puzzle Dungeon gives you a glimpse at the unpleasant side of the 16-bit afterlife.

Puzzle Dungeon by Robert Lane
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone
Price: $0.99

If you’re familiar with games like Chew Man Fu, The Adventures of Lolo, and all those generic block-pushing programs on old cell phones, you’ll immediately know how to play Puzzle Dungeon.

Your goal is to put the varying number of wooden crates in your cell on the orange squares. Since the gameplay is familiar and deceptively simple, the developer Robert Lane added a competitive element by pitting friends against each other. The game tracks every step, so friends can try to finish puzzles in fewer and fewer steps.

At launch, you can play through 60 puzzles, but Lane intends to roll out another 60 levels for free in December. Players who think they have a clever idea for additional levels can submit their designs on Lane’s website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cEkpjhX8_sI

If you’re familiar with those generic block-pushing programs on old cell phones, you’ll immediately know how to play Puzzle Dungeon.

Puzzle Dungeon is a simple recreation of classic cellphone games but that familiarity is welcome. The swipe-to-move controls are a little clunky, and the music has a droning, repetitive quality, but the actual puzzle solving is satisfyingly complex. I also think it’s great that Lane is giving players the opportunity to design levels. I hope that he eventually works that feature directly into Puzzle Dungeon so players can not only compete for the fewest steps but share user-generated levels.

puzzledungeon_gameplay
Game Name: : Puzzle Dungeon
The Good: Familiar and satisfyingly difficult puzzle-solving with a retro aesthetic.Plus you can design and submit new levels by the end of November 2013.
The Bad: Very repetitive and droning music.
The Verdict Maybe not for everyone, but if you like simple block puzzles, you could do a whole lot worse for $0.99.
Buy from: APP STORE

[rating=game3]

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