Here’s another App review to sink your teeth into, this time it’s a casual but addictive puzzle game that does have a bit of strategy.  GridBuster is only 59p and provides something a bit different from your normal applications.  You have to move the blue ball from the top left of the screen to the bottom right where it is aptly named “Goal.”  To do this you simply touch your path which have points on from 50 to 100 and 150 and this is where the strategy comes in.  You only have so many points to complete each level so you have to work out a path which will allow you to get to the finish line also under a time limit! See…I told you it was challengingly different.

I must admit the first few levels are easy and in my opinion pointless to play as you never run out of points or time 99% of the time and level 4 is where it really begins.  The time is decreased and you now actually have to choose to either bite the bullet and go through some high pointed 150 blocks or go around them taking more time but less points. This bit of puzzle gameplay isn’t rocket science though but for some people they’ll enjoy it and others will just tap quickly and if it doesn’t work they’ll just try again. Simple and caters for everyone.

So with the biggest flaw being a lack of touch responsiveness now fixed, the game is now playable. Which is great as it works perfectly and seems really smooth but then highlights the next problem in the game.  It never ends. You can keep trying each level, they are more like difficulties rather than progressing from one level to another, and the score will keep increasing as you do well but there is no way to record your score.  No leaderboard and it just seems this simple addition would make the whole game have a purpose.  Otherwise there is no way to compare with yourself or your friends who got the best score and sort of lacks any motivation to replay the game.  This brings up another issue though, shouldn’t the game end? There should be like a 3 minute total time limit each time you try so that there is a fair base for everyone’s scores because otherwise it would just be whoever plays the game for the longest would get the highest score which is pointless.

Saying that they are fairly simple issues and hopefully can be resolved without hassle which would definitly improve the replay value of the game.  Don’t get me wrong it has a good concept and is fairly addictive with the randomly generated levels. It’s actually one of the first iPhone apps I’ve got which requires me to think a bit more instead of just pressing buttons, it’s never a bad thing to stimulate the brain.  For 59p it’s a nice find but is let down by a few non-existant features that should be compulsory but as it is a recent release I’m sure updates will come.

Update: I have heard from the developer that there will be an online leader board in version 1.02. Result!