Email article
In the mood of a good puzzle game? Go search Apple App Store or Android Market. In the mood for a great puzzle game? Give Quell a try. Quell is a “zen puzzler” which aims to not only test your intellectual capacity to solve puzzles but also to make sure you have an enchanting experience while exercising aforementioned intellect.
In Quell you have control of a raindrop and are tasked with collecting all the pearls on each level. You are allowed to move the raindrop up, down, left, and right but the rain drop continues to move until it hits something (i.e. you can’t just move it one space up — if you swipe it up it will continue to move up until it hits a solid object). Armed with these basic mechanics, you must collect all the pearls in as many little moves as possible by making clever use of the solid object littered throughout the level. The following video demonstrates:
(Yes, that is me playing the first four levels of Quell.)
Quell has 84 levels organized into 21 stages with each staging having 4 levels. (More levels may be added in the future.) For each level you have an unlimited amount of moves you can make to collect the pearls but if you finish the level in the lowest possible moves (the number in the parenthesis at the top-left indicates the lowest amount of moves possible to finish a level) you get a bonus hint star. (I am not sure what these stars do – I only just started the game a few days ago.) The more pearls you progress the more “awards” you unlock, which don’t do anything except act as a badge of progression. The further you progress in the game the harder the levels become by a) putting the pearls in a not-so-easy-to-solve pattern and b) introducing newer obstacles.
That said, it isn’t so much the puzzle aspect that makes Quell a great game. Yes the puzzles are challenging but what really makes Quell shine above the rest of the puzzle games is its emphasis on gaming environment.
As you may have noticed in the video (sorry for the low quality video — that is the best I could record it at) Quell has beautiful animations; the developer has put a great amount of effort into polishing off the graphical aspect of Quell: All 80 levels are full of eye candy. Even though I only recently started playing Quell (I have finished the first 36 levels), the challenging gameplay + excellent aesthetics makes me want to never stop playing. I am sure many people will feel the same once they pick it up.
The cool part about Quell is that it is available on both iOS and Android. On iOS Quell is free with the option to purchase Quell Reflect for $1.99. On Android Quell is for $0.99; however it is available for free via GetJar Gold. There is no Quell Reflect on Android, yet; but it is coming, eventually.
There are many puzzle games on Android and iOS alike. However, few – if any – come close to how awesome Quell is. You can grab Quell from the links below:
Version reviewed: v1.21
Supported OS: Android 2.1+ and iOS 3.1.3+
