Pictogrid HD at $2.99 is a cool, two dimensional Rubik’s cube-like puzzle iPad game. Each level gives you a canvas consisting of a certain amount of rows and columns, and a certain amount of grey blocks which you have to move around in order to match the image that it gives you. The trick is that you can only move an entire row or column of blocks horizontally or vertically one space at a time.
As you progress, orange blocks become part of the level, which cannot be moved or moved through, and then blue blocks come in later levels which aren’t constrained by the perimeters of the grid, and jump from one end to the complete other side when you move them through an edge.
It is like a Rubik’s cube because you can’t just move one block at a time to match the pattern it gives you, but if you want to move a block up, it’s entire column of blocks move up one space with it (the same thing happens if you want to move horizontally). It is also similar to a Rubik’s cube since you need to mess up parts of your pattern in order to fix others.
It can obviously become quite difficult, but what makes the game great, is its simplicity. The soothing background piano music relaxes your mind, but when you get a pattern that looks like this, it quickly becomes confusing, but in a good way.
I love these kinds of simple mind game puzzles. By the harder levels, the goal patterns look so complicated, but you know that you’ve come so far, and that you will be able to figure this one out. What keeps you coming back (as is the case with most puzzle apps) is that it tracks how many moves it took you to complete each level, so that when you’re all done with every level, you can go back and try to match each pattern with less moves. This can cause Pictogrid to be endless as you try to beat each level with less moves each time you try.
Overall, Pictrogris is good deal for three bucks. The game definitely benefited from the iPad, since it would be extremely difficult to play on an iPhone.
