Tumbledrop

I’ve received  another addicting app for my iPhone. It’s a good thing I don’t get much down time or else I’d be in the corner playing games all day long. This one is called Tumbledrop and it’s like a game of Jenga played with geometric shapes and a bit of physics thrown in.

You’ll want to make sure you begin at the beginning of the app. The first few rounds include tutorials that will explain how to play the game. I’m going to try my best with my own explanation. There is a special shape that sits atop a stack of various yellow shapes. All of the shapes are sitting on a platform in water. Your goal is to take away yellow shapes until the special shape rests on the platform. As you take away shapes they all start to tumble and bump into each other. They’ll move differently depending on which ones you get rid of. You’ll have to figure out what shapes to remove and when to remove them. If your top shape falls in the water you’ve got to begin all over again. Each round in the game becomes progressively more difficult to solve and involve new tricks to the  puzzles. There is also a quick play option that has you seeing how many random levels you can play without hitting the water.  There are currently sixty Tumbledrop levels available but according to the App Store description more are coming via an update.

Tumbledrop is one of those games that seems so easy when you begin playing. Then before you realize it you’ve been sucked in and are trying over and over to beat a level. (If you do beat all the levels you can go back and replay them to try and earn more medals.) I think my favorite thing about this app is the faces on the shapes. They’re animated and show real emotions depending on what’s going on on the screen. They definitely don’t like it when they’re headed towards the water! Cute app that’d be fun for the kids and mom and dad.

**Update 1/27/10 - I’ve just gotten word that the price of Tumbledrop has been lowered to $.99 The app has been selected as a finalist at the Independant Games Festival in San Francisco in March. In order to raise the funds needed to get to the festival from the UK, Dock (the developer) has put the app on sale. More details are available on his blog.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Free version available-has 20 levels.

Seller: Starfruit Games

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.