Fuzzle

You’ll have seen this game concept on almost every other handheld and mobile platform, but that doesn’t mean it’s not well worth snapping up. You see, Fuzzle takes the usual ‘align five balls in a row to remove them’ genre and adds enough twists, colour and flexibility that almost everyone can both have fun with it and also get seriously addicted.

As balls are dragged around, new balls appear randomly on the grid, as usual, making it vital that you plan ahead and clear the colours as efficiently as possible. Even with expert play, you’ll finally grind to a halt – but how many points will you score before this happens?

Fuzzle’s genius is that it improves on the classic gameplay. It’s classic because no two games are the same and because
you’ll always be as challenged, even on your 1001st game. But Fuzzle adds in a rainbow ball, which can take any colour, to help you out – a lovely touch that is a true life saver. And, even better, there’s a ‘bomb’ ball that not only takes any colour but also blows up every other ball of the same colour when you complete its ‘row of five’. For new players, these extra elements add a lot of fun while the basic concepts and strategies are being learned.

With Fuzzle having now been through numerous application updates, it’s very mature and behaves impeccably as an iPhone application, remembering its game state when you launch it each time. The ‘Settings’ screen lets you adjust the difficulty, in terms of how many new balls get scattered each time (so that both a ten year old child and a thirty year old adult can both be challenged to a similar degree), and you can also turn on or off a game clock. With the clock on, balls drop on a schedule, meaning that you’ve got to think quickly. Fans of the ‘classic’ game can simply turn this off, ofcourse.

Perfect in every minor detail, Fuzzle is a deserved iPhone game classic.