Up until now, the fidgety furballs of Chuzzle, which took Macs and PCs by storm in 2005, have been notably absent from PopCap’s iPhone library of puzzle games. An intensely addictive tile-matching puzzler in the style of Columns, Chuzzle presents you with six-by-six rows of brightly hued chuzzles--puffy, big-eyed critters that resemble Star Trek’s Tribbles, only more high-strung. Slide the columns with your finger to match three, four, or even five chuzzles of the same color, and they’ll pop in delight, allowing more chuzzles to flood the game board. As you advance to later rounds, you’ll be hit with obstacles like chains that lock random chuzzles into place. The goal, of course, is to keep popping chuzzles until no moves are left.
Pop multiple chuzzle strings for extra bonus points.
The iPhone port of Chuzzle is nearly flawless, delivering all the one-more-level appeal of the original game, as well as its quirky animations and sound effects. In addition to the Classic gameplay mode, you can also play in Zen mode, an unending, obstacle free game; Speed mode, a faster-moving and more difficult version of the classic game; and Mind Bender mode, an offshoot where you must re-create a pattern by sliding chuzzles. Levels are even automatically saved when you quit out, allowing you to return to where you left off.
Match the pattern in Mind Bender mode to pass the level.
In fact, the only criticism we can level at this terrific port is a minor detail about the touch field that brings up the round meter that gradually fills with popped chuzzles. It’s too close to the bottom of the game board, which can result in accidental pauses in the action. But that small complaint aside, Chuzzle is one of the better $5 investments you’ll ever make.
Highly replayable puzzle action. Spot-on port of Mac version.
Too easy to accidentally trigger progress meter pop-up during gameplay.
