Likwid Review

By , on March 30, 2010


Likwid
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • A great attempt at a new, growing gameplay style.
  • Good variety of in-app song purchases.
  • Colorful neon graphics.

CONS

  • Puzzles only exist at one difficulty level... brutal.

VERDICT

There are many challenges to overcome when playing Likwid, but there's some merit to trial and error gameplay that keeps you glued to the screen.


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Fans of music based games and abstract puzzle solving will probably look at Likwid by FunMobility and say, 'Oh yeah, I've played that game before'. But instead of pointing fingers over who did what first, lets just admit that there's something about this particle-stream gameplay that's positively fascinating to play with.

Instead of pretending to play an instrument with taps or swipes, players need to activate cogs by passing particles of the correct color over them. This is done by moving around markers that provide various effects that redirect the stream. There are no fine-tune controls for moving these markers, but a slide bar does provide control over its size and effect strength.

Likwid goes for a clean neon style with its graphics, providing custom backgrounds for each section of the song. Purchased songs have unique backgrounds that are individually themed and the phrases used for each section are well chosen. Like many puzzle games it's frustrating when you have to resort to excessive trial and error, but the moments where you think you might have just worked it out keep you glued.

There's a lot more refinement required before this gameplay mechanic truly takes off, but Likwid does a great job of introducing concepts and rewards unique solutions. Some form of hint-mode or perhaps difficulty levels would make it more approachable, but fans of casual games that require some experimentation will find at least one song worth checking out.

Screenshots

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