Amazon FAOTD: Wonderlines review

Amazon's Free App of the Day is a match-3 puzzle game. It includes a few twists to separate it from the many match-3 games out there, but is it enough to even justify a download?

Wonderlines: Match-3 Puzzle Game

• Created by Nevosoft
• Originally $1.99
• Match-3 color puzzle game, includes three different modes of play
• Reviewed on an ASUS Nexus 7 (2012, 1.2 GHz, 1GB RAM)

The backstory of Neversoft's match-3 puzzle game hails back to South America where a European archaeologist found ancient hieroglyphic writings and gave them to a video game developer in Europe to re-create.

There's some twists in Wonderlines that separates it from the standard match-3 affair. Players must complete rows on brown tiles. Once all of them are destroyed, players advance to the next stage. It must be done in a specific amount of time.

Instead of the puzzle continually filling up with blocks to match up, players can control when new blocks come in. If three or more colors are continuously matched, no new blocks will appear on the screen. Even better, before blocks come in, players can see where they will pop up with a small colored indicator on the tile.

The process creates a lot of forward-thinking strategy for those that want it. Another way to play is to simply fill up the puzzle with blocks and destroy them at will. There doesn't seem to be much punishment in doing it that way, unless there's people that want to complete puzzles in record times.

Of course, your vast array of powerups, including creating diamonds that destroy the same color on the screen, dynamites that will blow up a particular section of the puzzle, and more await. Some of the puzzles change up as you continue through the world, like having to destroy a brown tile twice or unlocking caged blocks.

There's six different power-ups in all and 70 levels total. Each stage area has five levels, and new power-ups and challenges change in every stage. It won't take long to get through the entire game. In one sitdown, it can be completed in a couple hours.

Two other modes also exist from the standard Puzzle mode -- Action and Zen. Action actually is quite fun, blowing up blocks to fill up the meter as much as possible. Zen seems to be a practice mode of sorts, or just a non-timed adventure that's just made to relax through. Either way, that does add to the replay value (especially Action mode).

The music is definitely calming, but repetitive. There's just one track that plays throughout the levels. The display is also in a squared-off pan-and-scan format. While the game still looks great, it would be much to small to enjoy on a phone. Stretching out the screen for full widescreen also makes the game uglier. This game must be a remake of an earlier Shockwave game or old PC game, because not updating this game to high-definition is a real shame with how great the background visuals are.

How'd it run: Perfectly on the Nexus. Didn't skip a beat. Again, a 7" screen is about as small as I'd go to play this game comfortably. The game also barely takes any space with a download of around 12 megs.

Play or pass? Definitely play for match-3 fanatics. The game has enough different twists to deserve a playthrough. It's even fun to go through all in one sitdown. There's enough variety, and certain challenges or power-ups don't last too long that it gets boring. It's unfortunate that the game didn't get the full widescreen HD treatment, and they could have added a few more music tracks. But it's still fun to play.