A don’t play a lot of mobile games. I have a few on my S4 that I play from time-to-time but I am certainly not one that is glued to my mobile phone day after day with the latest finger-numbing eye-watering addiction.
A few weeks ago my friend introduced me to a game called 2048. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was spending much of my free time trying to get the elusive tile. Just this week I came across an article on Wired titled: Design Is Why 2048 Sucks, and Threes Is a Masterpiece. This obviously caught my eye and I fed the addiction of my click-happy fingers. I leave the reading of that article to you except for the fact that 2048 was a apparently a rip-off of a game called Threes – and apparently it is brilliant.
I opened the Google Play store and, in a rare occasion, invested some of my hard-earned finances in this alleged prodigy of a game. I am not going to babble on about how good (which it is), or bad (which it is not) the game is. I will let you decide that for yourself. The one thing that stood out for me though is that the designers of Threes did something that I have yet to encounter in a game before – and that is why I think it is good. They managed to take a simple tile-based game, which it is, and add personality. Each type of tile is essentially a character. This combined with the addictive difficulty of the game keeps one playing round-after-round-after-round.
Still not sure what I am talking about? Well then give it a whirl on iOS or Android. Note that there are a few copies so make sure to get hold of the original (made by Sirvo) as the sound effects and music (which differ between versions), play a large part in the cohesiveness of the game. Just don’t blame me when you forget to feed your pets. (and yourself).