Saturday, January 11, 2014

IOS Spotlight #40: Blek

Title: Blek
Developer: Kunabi Brother
Platforms: IOS Universal
Price: $2.99
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Blek was recently being discussed among indie sites and forums due to some foolish action taken by Youtube to remove the game's trailer. That's all been reconciled now, but that's not what Blek should be remembered for. No, instead, it should be remembered as a fantastic puzzle game that uses touchscreen to deliver a wonderful engaging experience.
Blek is a minimalist piece of art, and easily joins the ranks of Strata as my favorite minimal puzzle games. There isn't even a menu; the game opens with your first puzzle, which also acts as a simple tutorial. The art itself is merely a collection of black and colored dots on a white surface but what truly makes Blek a joy to play is the line. There is something just visually appealing and satisfying about seeing your line move so fluidly across the screen, in a way that feels unpredictable yet is completely planned
Yes, planned. Blek is not just some minimalist experiment. It's a puzzle game and like the best in the genre, the core mechanic is simple to understand, but difficult to master. Draw a path for your line to follow, which it will repeat until it leaves the screen, touches a black circle, or a colored circle. Your goal is to collect all the colored circles in a level and the genius of Blek is the freedom you're granted to complete that task. Your solutions can be as simple or as complex as you can think of. From the simple inching line to a complex pattern that gracefully weaves between attempting-ending black spots, Blek is a rare puzzle game that presents the player with a challenging scenario and then gives you free reign to solve it how you wish.
Blek is for the player who enjoys puzzles games that don't offer to hold your hand, but instead allow you to use your own intelligence and creativity to succeed. You can purchase Blek for $2.99.

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