Review: Untangle It

2 Aug, 2011

Title: Untangle It
Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, compatible with iPad. (Reviewed on iPod touch & iPad)
Developer: Tapsphere
Publisher: Tapsphere
TL;DR: Solve simple puzzles by uncrossing lines.
Family Friendly?: Click here to skip the details and see if this game is right for your family.

Untangle It is a puzzle game for the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad family. The objective of the game is pretty simple: to “untangle” each puzzle by dragging atoms that act as connectors between tangled lines. Crossed lines are indicated by the color red. Drag an atom to the proper location to uncross the lines and they turn white. The game counts your moves per level while a timer runs as you race to complete the level. Most levels take under a minute, quite a few less than thirty seconds, but a few stumpers took me a good four to five minutes.

I played this game on both my iPod touch and my iPad. The game doesn’t have a full iPad version right now, so I just blew up the game’s size by 2x to play it. The look was a bit more pixilated after doing this, but that’s not unique to this game. That’s just how it is when blowing up an iPod sized game on the iPad.

My first impression of the game was its clean design. Its no fuss menu and selection screens cover all the basics without requiring explanation. This design also has the result of every single level looking pretty much the same. No matter what level you are playing, you will see the same blue background, orange atoms, and red or white lines. This makes sense, given the concept of the game and Tapsphere’s preference for clean design. However, the lack of variety in this regard makes it difficult to sit and play for hours on end.

This is a decent title for casual gaming. If you have a few minutes to burn in the waiting room, need a study break, or are just sick of Angry Birds and need a new game to drive you nuts, Untangle It’s basic concept and automatic save functionality offer great pick-up-and-playability whether you have three minutes or thirty minutes.

The game offers twenty levels per easy, medium and hard difficulties. The levels within and between each difficulty become progressively difficult by increasing the number of atoms and number of tangles. You have the option to restart your level at any time. The game also offers an unlimited amount of levels on Random Mode, where you pick the number of atoms between 5 and 25 you want your random levels to have. Random Mode opens up this game to pretty much any skill level as it allows you to choose your challenge.

Something I liked aesthetically about the game was the music. The ambient score made me feel like I was solving a crime television show mystery. It focused me. Sound effects were minimal, consisting of nothing during actual game play and simple “pops” when navigating through the various menus.

My biggest complaint about the game is that it was very easy to select the wrong atom. Once I hit the levels with crazier tangles and more atoms, I quite frequently put my finger over one atom, started dragging, then discovered I was dragging the wrong atom. Of course, I could just put back the atom to its original spot and pick the one I originally intended. But that’s problematic for two reasons: first, this requires use of another “move” and therefore, you’ll receive less points for completion of that level. Second, once I reached the crazier levels, it sometimes took at least a few seconds to put the atom back in the tiny piece of real estate it came from. This feature of the game made me feel like Homer in that one episode of The Simpsons when his fingers were too big to dial the telephone. (“To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now.“) Fortunately, I have a dialing wand: my stylus. The stylus pretty much eliminated this problem. Other fixes were to blow up the game to 2x size on the iPad or to touch the screen with extreme caution. However, even with this complaint, the game is still a good selection for casual gamers looking for a new mobile app game.

Untangle It is available in the iTunes store now.

The Pros

• Great for playing anytime, anywhere
• Easy to play at any age
• Customizable difficulty

The Cons

• Easy to select the wrong atom
• Not much variety
• No iPad version yet

Family Focus

This game is very family friendly. The lack of a story essentially eliminates the room for age-inappropriate material. Parents, feel free to let your kids download and play this one. You can also play it yourself and share your scores with each other via Game Center.