Sorted! Review

By , on April 3, 2013
Last modified 10 years, 11 months ago


Sorted!
Download on the AppStore
3 out of 5

PROS

  • Comes up with a surprising amount of ways to test your ability to 'sort' quickly.
  • Vector style graphics make the game scale well no matter what platform you use.

CONS

  • Reliant on very fine differences in color; makes it unfriendly to those who suffer any form of color blindness.
  • Difficulty scaling spikes in challenge; it's possible to have a plateu of easy stages if you manage to survive long enough.

VERDICT

Sorted! nails its presentation and micro-game concept perfectly, but without more agency and depth it's easy to grow bored of what's on offer.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

Sorted! by Mighty Kingdom finds itself falling in to that niche category of time-wasters that can best be described as 'micro games'. If you've ever played a WarioWare game you'll know what I'm talking about - you're presented with a rapid-fire series of screens where you have to figure out and succeed at the 'game' placed before you in a matter of seconds. However, unlike WarioWare, Sorted! sticks to one game, and while it does vary things up, the game feels limited and lacks a hook to keep you coming back for more.

Once you start you're placed on a timer and a small ship will start flying towards a planet. There's no real correlation between this particular piece of interface design and the gameplay, but you'll gain more time if you finish your task before the ship hits the planet, and (effectively) lose time if you don't.

That task? Why sorting of course! Various shapes and objects will hover around the screen and they need to be dragged in to the appropriate receptacle to pass the level and move on to a harder set. At first the game makes things easy with large, easily defined shapes and colors, but it's not long before you're trying to match rotating shapes that only differ thanks to a very small difference in their shade of color.

And sadly that's all there is to it - you'll play for as long as possible and gain a high score, but the novelty wears off quickly without more incentives in the form of new game modes or more depth in the gameplay.

Sorted! is a gorgeous game and has the potential to be something addictive, but for now it's little more than an amusing distraction you'll quickly put down again.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 of 10 Screenshot 2 of 10 Screenshot 3 of 10 Screenshot 4 of 10 Screenshot 5 of 10 Screenshot 6 of 10 Screenshot 7 of 10 Screenshot 8 of 10 Screenshot 9 of 10 Screenshot 10 of 10