I should have known right off the bat after seeing the developer’s name, that this game was going to be a doozy. I love puzzles and great-looking games for the iOS family. Portaball by Bartosz Cienchanowski (99 cents) is the answer to my desire for both. If you’re tired of flying through the first 20 levels of the last however-many-puzzle games you downloaded, try this one. I don’t think you’ll find it easily bested.
Tap Portaball, and you’ll find yourself on the title/menu screen. “What’s that?” you ask yourself. “Did they actually utilize all of the pixel functionality of the retina display?” Yes! They did! This app’s interface looks as though it were carved into your retina display in a beautifully crisp and wonderfully simple presentation layer. Here you have three options: Play, Challenges, Settings. I’d start with the Play button. I found that one to be challenging enough.
This is a portal-based game. If you’ve ever played the Orange Box for Xbox 360, you’ll instantly understand the basic functions of this scaled-down, 2D version of the game Portal. If not, no worries, the goal of the game is to get the ball in the Home slot. This is accomplished by creating entry and exit portals to move the ball around, over, through and back over the obstacles in the game.
In the upper left-hand corner, you have your Pause button. This button is my favorite because it gives your mind time to understand what’s going on between portal switches. And, of course, you’ll be doing many portal switches since you can only have one entry and one exit portal up at a time. The upper right-hand corner contains the X to go back to the main menu, and the bottom right-hand corner is your Start Over arrow.
So, you’re obviously better at this game than I am, and you’re feeling confident that you cannot only complete all the levels, but you need an extra challenge, eh? Well, my friend, you are in luck. Tap Challenges on the main menu to transport yourself into a new realm of the game. Currently there are two challenges to make your gameplay that much more challenging: Stop Me Once, in which you’re only able to use the Pause button once for each of the 50 levels, or Which Is Which, where both of your portals are the same color. Can you keep track?
There it is. Portaball for iOS. I definitely think this game is worth it – even if it’s only to see a game that actually utilizes the retina display. This game challenged me, where most games don’t. Check it out.
