Review: MagniFusion
Review: MagniFusion is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
- Price: $1.99 (Currently free, during one-day introductory special. Download here)
- Version: 1.0
- Official Site: Toco Games
I once worked at a company that celebrated the launch of one of its products by handing out little plastic trinkets to all the employees. One of these trinkets was a puzzle sphere made up of 4 nearly-identical pieces, the object of which was to work out how to build the sphere again once disassembled.
It was readily apparent how the pieces fit together; the trick was trying to do it with only two hands. One day, after fiddling with it for some time, my officemate exasperatedly cried out “This isn’t a puzzle, it’s a skill!”
I have a similar reaction to the puzzle mode in MagniFusion. The goal of each single-screen puzzle is to push all like-colored bubbles into each other, each pair merging to form a larger bubble. These larger bubbles won’t fit through smaller openings, but will slide over smaller pits, meaning there is often a fairly precise order in which the bubbles need to be merged.
The challenge of these puzzles rarely lies in figuring out the order in which to merge bubbles, or the paths on which to move them, but in doing so within the generally brief time limit.
In most cases you do not drag the bubbles directly, but push them along with your fingertip. Since this means the bubbles can easily get away from you if you are not careful, moving quickly whilst avoiding obstacles (including other bubbles you do not wish to merge with yet) can become quite the test of manual dexterity.
Fortunately, most of the puzzles reside on the proper side of the line between challenging and frustrating, so the overall experience remains fun. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve varies wildly, and you could slog your way through one maddening puzzle only to find the next several are cakewalks. Since you must complete all five puzzles in each tier to unlock the next, this can wind up prematurely hampering progress in the later stages.
MagniFusion also contains an arcade mode, which features exactly the same gameplay found in Toco Games’ earlier title, Magnify Physics (see my earlier review for details). Importantly, however, the terrible slowdown problems that plagued Magnify Physics have been resolved, and the framerate remains smooth even with a large amount of action on screen.
The arcade mode also now comes in three difficulties, which determine how much of the edges will freeze bubbles. Magnify Physics represents hard mode, with all borders off-limits, and the penalty area is reduced from there.
Even with these improvements, the game is still a little rough around the edges. Aside from the inconsistent difficulty in the puzzle mode, the controls sometimes feel a bit glitchy, especially when squashing a bubble to move it more precisely.
In fact, I found the squash functionality in general to be more of a hindrance than a help, especially in arcade mode. For the most part, though, these minor flaws don’t detract much from the fun, and any puzzle failed due to a glitch is easily retried.
MagniFusion addresses the critical flaws in its predecessor, and adds an equally-compelling puzzle mode. A few polish issues notwithstanding, it is an entertaining skill-based puzzler built around some fresh mechanics.
Bonus Protip: For an additional challenge, enter the code 477201 at the “Codes and Extras” screen to unlock the Special Maze Mode.
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