Swap This!
SCORE: 94
Developers get our attention in a
variety of ways. Two Tribes has done so with high quality games that are
fun, fresh, and safe for families. Electronic Arts has a fantastic
developer in Two Tribes, and I always smile when information on their
latest game arrives. Swap This! is their latest game, and I am so
happy to be able to play and review this iPhone/iPod Touch game. The
level of strategy behind this cute looking game is impressive. More on
that to come friends.
The goal of Swap This! is to line up the same fish in some form of four.
That can be a line of four, or a square, or whatever else you can come
up with. Once they are touching one another, the ice they are in starts
to crack. If you are fast enough you can string even more of the same
color for added bonuses. There are some variances on this. For example
there is a puzzle mode where the goal is to solve the board in the
fewest moves as possible. The timed mode gives you so much time to rack
up the high score, and Fish Fight has you trying to knock a monster fish
down to the bottom of the ocean.
The graphics in Swap This! are alive with color. They are amazing, and
make this game approachable by all ages. The fish have a humorous look
and feel to them as they are stuck in the ice. I enjoyed watching them
break free and swim away. The cartoon violence in Swap This! comes from
little movie scenes after beating one of the fish in Fish Fight. They
are at the level of say Looney Tunes.
The best games I have played have music that gets stuck in your head.
Swap This! does this in spades. I can hear that little music after
solving a puzzle level right now, and I enjoyed it. The entire look of
Swap This! has an aquatic feel to it, and the music amplifies that feel.
I think of the ocean, and water, and sea life as I listen to the music
in Swap This!. I am not even sure how this is done, but there is some
major talent over at Two Tribes.
Family Friendly Gaming was provided a download code for this app that
costs ninety-nine cents. Owners get three modes to play. Swap This!
includes the puzzle, timed, and fish fight modes. The puzzle mode
contains three major setting with fifteen levels each. This will give
you at a minimum of forty-five levels. Swap This! is highly addictive. A
level can be played quickly, but I kept wanting to do better. If you
like to spam friends Facebook pages, then you can let them know of your
new high score.
Matching games usually have one irritating flaw - a move must result in
pieces going away. Swap This! does not make this mistake. In fact I
found myself setting up some major chains because it let me move
whatever I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. The fun factor is extremely
high in Swap This!. I really had a blast with this app. The more I
played it, the more I marveled at how deep the strategies could become.
The farther I got in the game, the faster I had to become. Playing the
puzzle levels unlocked special items, and skills that made the Fish
Fight, and timed modes easier.
Swap This! teaches matching, hand eye coordination, and pattern
recognition. Swap This! is also a real breath of fresh air in the video
game industry. There is clean fun in this app that proves we do not need
all the blood and gore to have a good time. Swap This! is one of the
best apps I have played all year long. I am very curious to see what Two
Tribes comes up with next.
- Paul
Graphics: 89%
Sound: 99%
Replay/Extras: 94%
Gameplay: 98%
Family Friendly Factor: 92%
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ESRB Rating: '9+' for
9+
{Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence}
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