Game Review: Triple Town

Title: Triple Town
Developer: Spryfox
Genre: Puzzle
Review Platform: Asus Eee Transformer Pad (Android)

TL;DR Review: Great puzzle game that does a solid job of combining existing mechanics into something fresh and fun.


Developer's Description: Triple Town is an original puzzle game in which you try to grow the greatest possible city. The larger the city you build, the more points you score. You build your city by matching three or more game-pieces: combine three grasses to make a flower, three flowers to make a bush, three bushes to make a tree... until you've filled the board with houses, cathedrals and castles. Along the way, you'll have to outwit giant bears who will try to block your progress.

How large can you grow your dream city before the board fills and the game ends?

My Thoughts: This is a great puzzle game that makes good use of the well known "match 3 or more" mechanic as well as adding some new and interesting twists. Each 'world' begins with a small portion of the board filled in with some of the basic, starter objects. The player receives points based on all of the objects on the board, with more points for more advanced and/or special objects. Once the board is completely filled with objects, the game ends and the player is awarded coins based on their progress.

A new game and already the bears are out to get me...

Each turn the player gets a random object to place. Matching three similar objects consumes them and creates a new object in the spot where the last matching object was placed. Matching four or more similar objects results in a "super" version of the upgraded object that is worth twice the points. In addition to the normal objects of grass, bushes, trees, and houses there are also special objects as well. There's a crystal that acts as a wildcard if you use it to make a match (but it turns into a rock if you don't make a match), a Bot which can destroy any object on the board, and wild giant bears that occupy a spot on the board and that move each turn.

There's a couple of other additions that give you some control over the random object placement each turn: the storage area and the store. The storage area (seen in the top left of the screenshot) is a spot where you can store a single object for later use, swapping it with the object that you're currently placing. The store allows you to spend the coins that you've earned to purchase certain, specific objects.

Triple Town is free to download and try for a limited number of turns. The initial turn limit is generous and is plenty to get enough games under your belt to decide if you want to buy it or not. You have the option of purchasing a fixed number of additional turns (in various size packages and prices) or just 'buying' the game outright by purchasing unlimited turns. In addition to buying turns, you can also buy coins (which are used in the store to buy specific objects). The monetization of this game is well done and is not always in your face pestering you to spend money.

Game Over! Yes, my town turned out very religious. It seems that my people spent most of their time in church praying that the bears would just go away.

Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot and so did my wife and ten year old daughter. The game play is simple on the surface, but has some depth and complexity in planning out your object placement. The graphics are well done and pleasing to the eye, with cute animations (the people walking around their little town is a nice touch). The sound is minimal and I didn't have a strong preference for playing it with or without sound.