Sunday, October 24, 2010
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Nitaii Review
★★☆☆☆
In pre-school, the goal of this game was to shove a square peg through the square hole. Nintaii makes your quest easier by providing only one peg, but makes the journey to the hole a royal pain in the...
Title: Nintaii | Developer: Concrete Software, Inc. | Genre: Brain & Puzzle |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.0.12 | Size: 3.4MB | Price: $2.99
Click QRC image (from phone) or scan with a barcode reader.
The intro text, when beginning a new game of Nintaii, sums it up quite nicely: "The goal is to get the block to fall into the exit hole." In all 100 Japanese-named stages, you are provided with a 1x2 block and a map full of twists, turns, triggers, and pads. In order to complete the stage, you swipe the screen to roll your block on its side or flip it on its "foot", moving it ever-so-slowly toward the goal-hole. If you play your blocks right, a flip on its side followed by a final flip on its foot will dump it down the chute. Of course, this is much, much, much easier said than done.
That's basically it for Nintaii - flipping a block around a map, and positioning it over the hole. As previously stated, there are 100 levels of increasing difficulty in this puzzler. Unfortunately, the levels are all quite similar in features and differ only in the variety of irritating twists and turns to navigate. There are three basic variants to the maps - triggers, arrows, and obstructions. If you flip your block on to a trigger - whose icon resembles a small, grey gear - you'll raise/lower a corresponding obstruction-block on the map. If you flip your block on to an arrow, you're immediately transported in the corresponding direction. And obstructions... well, are obstructing blocks and barriers; you'll have to go around these.
Controls
The controls work as-expected for such a basic game: swipe the screen left-to-right and top-to-bottom to move the block around the screen. There's no option to scroll the map, which is a little frustrating as most maps stretch past the screen-edges.
Graphics
Nintaii certainly isn't a revolutionary game in the realm of visual appeal. The over-all design is pretty simple, and the color-palette tends toward the drab and unassuming. It's clear that the majority of development in this game went toward level-design.
Sound
There's a single, somewhat melodious and atmospheric background jingle that will keep you company through all one-hundred stages - enjoy. In addition, there's a particularly obnoxious and poor-quality "error" sound that triggers whenever you try to move your block to an invalid location.
Options
You're given the option of two background-themes - retro (daisies and stars) and modern (circuit-design). I'd recommend the latter in order to save you the headache of paisley. You can also toggle the sound effects, vibration, and music. A tutorial is available, but not really needed. If you're feeling adventurous, you can stray from the beaten-path and pick any 'ol level you want to play, via the Select Level option.
Verdict
Nintaii is a fairly basic, yet frustratingly complex puzzle-game, which suffers from a lack of variety and appealing visuals. Still, the game functions as-expected, and provides a good time-sink if you can't find anything better to do with your Android. Is it worth your hard-earned cash? Probably not, especially given the sheer number of other competitively-priced games out on the Market today.
Get Nintaii on AppBrain!
In pre-school, the goal of this game was to shove a square peg through the square hole. Nintaii makes your quest easier by providing only one peg, but makes the journey to the hole a royal pain in the...Title: Nintaii | Developer: Concrete Software, Inc. | Genre: Brain & Puzzle |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.0.12 | Size: 3.4MB | Price: $2.99
Click QRC image (from phone) or scan with a barcode reader.The intro text, when beginning a new game of Nintaii, sums it up quite nicely: "The goal is to get the block to fall into the exit hole." In all 100 Japanese-named stages, you are provided with a 1x2 block and a map full of twists, turns, triggers, and pads. In order to complete the stage, you swipe the screen to roll your block on its side or flip it on its "foot", moving it ever-so-slowly toward the goal-hole. If you play your blocks right, a flip on its side followed by a final flip on its foot will dump it down the chute. Of course, this is much, much, much easier said than done.
That's basically it for Nintaii - flipping a block around a map, and positioning it over the hole. As previously stated, there are 100 levels of increasing difficulty in this puzzler. Unfortunately, the levels are all quite similar in features and differ only in the variety of irritating twists and turns to navigate. There are three basic variants to the maps - triggers, arrows, and obstructions. If you flip your block on to a trigger - whose icon resembles a small, grey gear - you'll raise/lower a corresponding obstruction-block on the map. If you flip your block on to an arrow, you're immediately transported in the corresponding direction. And obstructions... well, are obstructing blocks and barriers; you'll have to go around these.
Controls
The controls work as-expected for such a basic game: swipe the screen left-to-right and top-to-bottom to move the block around the screen. There's no option to scroll the map, which is a little frustrating as most maps stretch past the screen-edges.
Graphics
Nintaii certainly isn't a revolutionary game in the realm of visual appeal. The over-all design is pretty simple, and the color-palette tends toward the drab and unassuming. It's clear that the majority of development in this game went toward level-design.
Sound
There's a single, somewhat melodious and atmospheric background jingle that will keep you company through all one-hundred stages - enjoy. In addition, there's a particularly obnoxious and poor-quality "error" sound that triggers whenever you try to move your block to an invalid location.
Options
You're given the option of two background-themes - retro (daisies and stars) and modern (circuit-design). I'd recommend the latter in order to save you the headache of paisley. You can also toggle the sound effects, vibration, and music. A tutorial is available, but not really needed. If you're feeling adventurous, you can stray from the beaten-path and pick any 'ol level you want to play, via the Select Level option.
Verdict
Nintaii is a fairly basic, yet frustratingly complex puzzle-game, which suffers from a lack of variety and appealing visuals. Still, the game functions as-expected, and provides a good time-sink if you can't find anything better to do with your Android. Is it worth your hard-earned cash? Probably not, especially given the sheer number of other competitively-priced games out on the Market today.
Get Nintaii on AppBrain!
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