Just another hard day’s work in the magical mine.
Aurora Feint is a fantasy-themed puzzle game that boasts gorgeous artwork, elaborate visual effects, and a rich, dramatic soundtrack. It’s easily one of the most polished games we’ve seen from the App Store yet - give or take some hiccups.
Your primary task is “mining” - arranging an ever-increasing number of fire, wind, plant, and water blocks in matching combos that help clear the screen and earn you crystals. A horizontal swipe of your finger moves blocks, and you can tip your device vertically or horizontally to build the best possible combos before the screen fills up. Aurora Feint incorporates simple role-playing game elements, too. You can pick a gender and name for your character, improve abilities, and build tools that help you get the most crystals possible.
Mining is just one part of Aurora Feint’s world. Crystals from the Mine are spent in the Store where you buy blueprints for tools - built in the Smith - as well as magic books to study in the Tower. Each area’s challenges amount to matching blocks or crystals, but how the game’s locations fit together isn’t as clear as it could be when you begin play. Onscreen prompts that whisk you to a new location when you have the skills or crystals to complete a goal help keep you from getting stuck. Despite the handholding, gamers looking for a quick fix might be turned off by the game’s pace. Like an RPG, Aurora Feint requires a lot of leveling up to get to the good stuff. Games can always be suspended and resumed later, however.
Aurora Feint’s developers promise future installments will offer massively multiplayer online features, but until then there's only a community option that lets you share character information with Aurora Feint-playing friends in your iPhone or iPod touch’s contacts list. The community feature is voluntary, secure, and not required for play. Unfortunately, other aspects of the game feel like works in progress as well. The music occasionally disappears, and the game sometimes freezes, forcing a restart of our device. Annoying as these problems are, deleting Aurora Feint from our device and reinstalling it with a connection to iTunes clears them up.
Aurora Feint is a real delight for the eyes and ears, and a fine puzzler to boot. Your time and patience will be rewarded.
Outstanding music, artwork, and design. RPG elements keep gameplay interesting. Can't beat the price.
Progress can be slow. A little glitchy. 
photogirl333
August 04, 2008 at 8:53pm
I am SO addicted to this game! I personally turn down the music and sound effects, I find them distracting after a while... the design / artwork etc is great - even better - it's FREE!
I agree with the story - progress can be slow. You have to buy your challenges, and for some reason, they use the same block MOST of the time, and that seems to be the block you can't get many of when "mining."
And I have come across a few glitches as well. I had a random reboot tonight - I've had random "back to home screen" glitches which happen over and over if you keep trying to start the game again (I have to turn off the phone and turn back on, then it lets me resume).
But again... it's free.... so you can't really complain!!
