Enigmo by Pangea Software was originally created for Mac OS X way back in 2003.  Not only was the game great back then, but it also included a level editor so when you finished the 50 levels included in the game, the fun wasn’t over.  Enigmo has since been ported to the iPhone/iPod touch and I just had to see how well the controls and gameplay transferred to a portable device.

Before I get into all of the good stuff, I would like to state that at the time of writing this review, the game is on sale, I mean extremely discounted.  When it was originally released on the iTunes App Store, Enigmo was priced at $9.99.  That is not a bad price for this game at all.  Recently, the game has been discounted to $1.99 which is an absolute steal but only for a limited time.

If you haven’t ever played Enigmo before, it is a 3D puzzle game.  The objective is to get the various colored liquid drops falling from their “droppers” into the corresponding “tanks”.  The player is given multiple types of tools to manipulate where the flow of the liquid drops goes.  The puzzles start out very simple, of course, and by the end become beyond difficult.  Like I stated earlier, there are 50 included maps to challenge you, but the level editor from the Mac version was left out of the mobile version.  You would think that would be a problem, but Pangea has you covered.  In the first menu of the game, you can go to the downloads section and download a few hundred different user created maps for free, so there will always be a never-ending supply of impossible levels to infuriate you and your brain.

The graphics and sound are nothing to write home about as they basically are a port from a game five years ago, but that isn’t a problem here.  The game looks very clean and that makes for effective gameplay.

The controls are always the most important part of a mobile game, especially on a touch-based platform like the iPhone.  You would swear the game was originally created for the iPhone and not the Mac.  The controls have transferred very well.  Enigmo doesn’t have any menus once you enter the game, so the entire screen is devoted to gameplay.  All of the tools of manipulation are to the left of the screen and you can just drag and drop them into position.  A circle will appear around the piece if it is needed to be rotated.  You can also zoom in and out with the normal two finger pinch/pull method.  It is really that simple.  The only gripe I had about the controls is, since there isn’t a menu, when you want to end the game or pause you have to double tap on the screen.  Well, at times during rotating or moving a piece I would excessively tap and accidentally have that menu pop-up which turned out to be a bit of an annoyance.

For a mobile game, Enigmo is the complete package.  You can play one level if you only have a short period of time and just save it for the next gaming session.  It is extremely satisfying and addicting with all of the content included plus all of the user created maps.  If you have been reluctant to buy games through the iTunes App Store this is a must, especially since it is on sale.  Hurry, before it is too late!

Overall: 9 out of 10

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