Wizard Hex Review

One of the better advantages of touch-device gaming is the simplicity of setting up and playing board-games with friends, sans-dice/pieces and cards that only act as clutter. Wizard Hex by Trouble Brothers is a new board-game concept that uses some familiar concepts along with entirely unique ones to keep the gameplay fresh, whether you're playing against AI opponents or against your friends.

As the name implies, the game is played out on a hexagonal grid (which is itself set inside a hexagonal board) and players can take up any positions on the board in an attempt to end up with the most amount of spaces occupied by the end. However, the twist is that players can control the pieces of players adjacent to their starting position, making some match-ups extremely interesting as you either directly control another player's pieces or a shared position between two or more players. Two moves are available to players each turn (barring the first turn, allowing only one move), allowing you to place down a token in an empty space, stack up tokens on a spot to fortify a position or attacking opposing tokens to clear up the board.

Thanks to the 'ally' system, the game can become extremely challenging to master as it's often possible for your opponent to take advantage of your stronger position on the board, clearing out opponents pieces (and your own) in the process. Unfortunately the game doesn't do a terribly great job of introducing players to the game's important strategic points, though learning the basics even without a guide doesn't take too long.

With other 'classic' board-games making the transition to iOS devices, it's great to see something new taking the center stage and while the game is a blast to play on your own or with friends, it'd be even better to see the game taking things online. Wizard Hex only takes a bit of practice to ease in to, but once you've played a game or six with friends it will become a staple of anyone's party-game collection.