If extra-terrestrials were to invade tomorrow, they would quickly conclude that humans reproduce by matching tiles on screens. There’s no other explanation for our global obsession with match-three puzzlers.
Of course, it wouldn’t take much time on the internet for the extra-terrestrials to realize that we have an altogether different method of reproduction. But they would still assume that bringing gems, sweets, fruit, and other things like that together in rows of three or more is fundamentally important to us as a species.
And they’d be right.
Symbol Run in the latest addition to the massive match-three puzzle tradition, and it takes the genre in a new and innovative direction. You’re still bringing tiles together, but developer Snojken has added AR and step counting functionality to bring it bang up to date.
Let’s start with the conventional stuff. Symbol Run is a match-three puzzler, which means you have to line up identical tiles in rows or columns of three or more to eliminate them from the board. Slightly unusually, you can switch the blocks one by one, or by dragging them to an empty slot on the board or onto another tile.
Snojken has also taken a lot of care with the puzzles themselves. While most developers are happy to slap a piece of fruit or a random gem on the board, Snojken has chosen its symbols carefully and researched their origins.
For example, did you know that three interlocking rings is called a Triquetra, and it signifies the Holy Trinity (though it predates Christianity.) And has anybody ever explained to you that a cross with a loop at the top is called an Ankh, and is an Ancient Egyptian symbol of life?
Well now you know.
Symbol Run gives you a limited number of moves per stage, but if you run out you can go for a walk – an actual walk, in the world – to earn more, extending your playing session while getting fitter at the same time. You have to make a small in-app purchase for this functionality, but we think it’s well worth it for the added dimension it brings to the game.
You can download Symbol Run for free on the App Store right now.
Read more about it on: www.symbolrun.com, and follow the game’s Twitter and Facebook pages for updates. You can learn more about the developer here.
Published: Oct 12, 2017 12:55 pm