Route Candle

Last summer as iPhone turned one and we blew the candles out on its birthday cake, we wished for great games. Our wish has come true, but unexpectedly in this case it comes from lighting the very candles we blew out.

You'd be hard pressed to find many madder plots than guiding a flame around a maze, picking up matchsticks as you go in order to light numerous candles dotted around the map.

Games with a senseless story often are the funnest to play. This is gaming for the sake of gaming, celebrating the fun that can be had with a nonsensical blast without a need for a deep plot or complicated control scheme. The game's bizarre setting also allows a stunning visuals that really stand out on screen. Taking the hand-drawn look and then adding phenomenal animation, Route Candle is a joy to behold.

Guiding our fiery friend around each map is a question of plunking down flags, the game predicting your movement before you actually commit to it. With a set number each level, you can only walk to your left, right, or forward. Placing a flag behind your flame results in it plodding around in a little circle - a factor that can actually be advantageous.

With usually no more than three or four flags available on each run, success comes from making more than one stop on each journey, blazing a trail across the screen on long trips. Each candle has a set number of matches needed to set it ablaze, making planning your route so you have the right number of matches on you each time you pass a candle more complex than it might initially appear.

There are certain rules that also alter your approach. For instance, it's not possible to place a marker on a square with matches on or even next to the candles themselves. To balance this out, you don't have to walk directly over the matches to pick them up - walking past them is enough, which is also the case when it comes to setting the candles alight.

Route Candle involves coaxing your flame along a path to victory rather than ordering it. It's the kind of puzzler where you learn just how play will react to your flag placings as each level passes, trial, error and luck playing as much a role as skill.

Yet Route Candle never stands still. As you progress, new elements encourage varied strategy. Sticks of dynamite swipe some of your matches, potholes block off areas, and arrows alter your route against your will - all add a spin to what could easily have become stale gameplay.

You could question just how enduring Route Candle will prove to be in one or two months time, though. All the twists in the world can't alter the fact that you're unlikely to want to play each level more than once or twice. This is a flame that burns brightly while it lasts.