I like this game, but it’s missing a lot.
First off, there are only ten levels. I got through the whole thing in one sitting.
For another, the mechanics are unclear. The principle is simple: You swipe to move the red thing, which travels as far as it can in the swipes direction until it hits something else. If it hits the yellow thing, it takes the yellow thing’s place, and the yellow thing moves on until it hits a gem, which it in turn replaces. Simple, except that the yellow thing will turn when it hits a wall, and I can’t figure out what the rule is for which direction it turns (sometimes this means reversing course). So some of the strategic aspects of the game are just opaque.
After you clear the level, you’re given a “bonus” stage, in which you must collect as many gems directly with the red thing as you can before time runs out. This is done in the same maze as the one you just cleared, except with an additional wall block. There’s barely enough time to do this if you’re high on adrenaline the instant you finish the actual level. There’s no time limit on the regular levels, and the abrupt jump from strategy to reflex is jarring and irritating.
There’s no help screen to explain anything. There’s also no sound. There is a completion screen, in which you’re awarded stars for your performance, to a maximum of three. In some levels this appears to be determined only by the number of moves you take to finish the main level, but in others the number of gems you collect in the “bonus” level seems to be factored in as well. Because there’s no obvious scoring system, the stars ultimately feel pretty arbitrary.
There’s also a cumulative count of the number of gems you’ve collected. I don’t know what the relevance of that is.
Finally, there’s no level selection screen. I automatically take one star off any game I play that’s missing this.
Overall, this is worth a try. But it needs a lot more to make it worth keeping it around.