Tetravex

Puzzle games are like ice cream. There are the active puzzlers like Tetris that give off a tangy sherbet taste and the sophisticated high-brow brain-benders such as Enigmo that possess a refined coffee flavour. Going with this gastronoic theme, Tetravex is rocky road, a mix of smooth chocolate broken up by hard nuts and playful marshmallows. For all the sophisticated puzzling it brings, its hardened design makes it difficult to enjoy.

Tetravex involves organizing coloured tiles in such a way as to match similar sides. For each puzzle, you're presented with a specific number of tiles that must fit into the designated solution space. Figuring out the correct placing for each tile boils down to matching the coloured sides of each tile so that they all fit. At the start of each stage, all of your tiles lie at the bottom of the touchscreen. You're able to move tiles by tapping and then dragging them onto the solution grid.

Puzzles come in four varieties: Simple (2x2), Easy (3x3), Medium (4x4), and Hard (5x5). Tiles are selected randomly, so there's essentially a never-ending supply of puzzles among the four difficulty levels. As you can imagine, tackling Medium and Hard puzzles presents a much more arduous challenge than the four-tiled Simple puzzles or basic 3x3 grids on Easy.

The greater the number of tiles in play, the higher the scope for error. Tetravex boils down to a game of trial-and-error that can be seen as a serious challenge or exercise in frustration. Solutions only come about by situating tiles on the grid, but that often yields unworkable configurations. As a result, you're constantly removing tiles to revamp your solution.

This becomes immensely frustrating when attempting the larger puzzles. You can spend several minutes devising a solution only to discover that you're left with two tiles and two spaces that simply don't match up. Fixing this usually requires clearing a majority of tiles from the board - if not all of them - and starting over. In this sense, Tetravex feels like a Rubik's cube in that no matter how many times you move the pieces, you often remain at square one.

Each puzzle is timed, although in the positive sense. You never have a timer hanging over your head, pressuring you to complete a puzzle before the clock runs down; instead, you're encouraged to complete stages in as little time as possible. These times are tracked via high score boards both on your iPhone and the web. Do note that only Medium and Hard puzzles are tracked online.

Whether you find trial-and-error engaging or infuriating will determine your affinity for the puzzling design of Tetravex. It's a good value, largely because of its endless supply of puzzles, yet you won't enjoy any of them if you can't get over its steep difficulty.