If there's one mobile developer you can rely on, it's Nitrome. And Flat Pack gives us one more reason why.
This quirky, gravity-defying puzzler sees you controlling a bandana-wearing baked bean with a propellor for a hairstyle, while traversing one 3D maze after another.
Swipes move you on the ground, and taps send you skywards as you try to avoid spikes, bad guys, and turrets on your way to unlocking the exit.
Boxed inYou guide your character along each face of a cube, passing over to the adjacent one once you've reached the edge of the screen.
In order to reach your goal, you'll need to punch through destructible blocks, and collect 6 golden cube sides. At which point, the exit will open up and you're free to enter the next maze.
But to get there, you'll also need to navigate other obstacles, like cubes bouncing off one another, being careful not to get squished.
Flat Pack is fun, fast-paced, and a surprisingly fabulous advert for Apple's AR initiative. Nitrome has crafted several exclusive levels for the launch of iOS 11 and that time, care, and attention really shows.
Each level shows something different, but also requires you to be interactive with the environment, actually encouraging you to get up and move around.
Unlike other AR games though, Nitrome has been smart and allowed you to reset the position of the maze at any point, preventing any potentially dangerous entanglements.
The AR component is one of the few times where I've felt like something has actually been added to the game. It works really well and offers an intriguing alternative perspective.
The game is never unfairly harsh, nor is it a stroll in the park. Flat Pack measures everything just right.
No assembly requiredFlat Pack is slick with Nitrome charm, and manages to break some new ground in the mobile space with a refreshing take on puzzle-solving and an inspired approach toward AR gaming.
It's not the best game in the Nitrome library, and there are far superior puzzlers on the AppStore, but the package all comes together in a very neat and tidy way that makes it stand out from the AR crowd.