I’m a Tetris Attacks shark and bright cute squares hit me in the soft spot. So over the weekend I bought the Puzzlings game for my unjoked iPhone. Quick take: anyone keen on the intuitive controls of harbour master or flight control can now enjoy the same drag-to-lead game mechanics in a match-3 puzzler.

The matching system is a bit simple but engaging enough and it’s not TOO easy, by the last two levels it took me a few tries to unlock everything. And while toucharcade questioned if wardrobe items were unlocked too easily I found no problem there. I’m fine being labeled a casual gamer as long as my short attention span is serviced with engaging power ups!

My current strategy is nothing but quick matches since I’m not good enough to reap the benefit of stacking combos, or maybe combos don’t pay off with enough meter-boost to be worth the time. Also, I can’t tell if I get bigger meter-boost for matching 4/5/6 in a row than just matching 3. Maybe some numbers or a meter-chunks popping on the screen and flying up to the speed meter as you cleared blocks would help show what the move you just made was worth.

I dig the game enough that I’ve suggested Puzzlings to a few friends who have picked it up. True satisfaction would be challenging any one of them in VS style net-play (with my combos landing bigger, unweildly blocks on their screen). Having wardrobe items were at stake would be a bonus on top of net-play.

I’d also like to see more character customization: a bit of changing the body shape like you can with the Wii avatars or spore-style limb placement would be welcome. On the other hand I’m glad Puzzlings sticks to simple avatar customization, I wouldn’t want it to go off the deep end into Animal Crossing territory. Sims start to bore and remind me that if I REALLY want to customize a space, I should be cleaning my apartment.

The VS play would also be a nice way to share the Puzzling you’ve decorated. If a version bump lacks netplay, more environments and poses for the snapshot mode would be welcome. I could see Sonic Boom and Bight pulling off some fun rag-doll physics for posing your Puzzling and giving the user control of camera zoom and position too.

The url placement on the snapshots is pretty tasteless. People know how to google and logos are styling, so water mark with those or sneak them in so they’re a bit less blatant. It’s the same complaint I level against the otherwise rad JitterPic.

Puzzling’s in game music is perfect, upbeat and cute but not so sticky or sweet that it’s annoying. The sound effects are effective but could be even better if they were generative rather than samples—for example every time you match some blocks you get the same satisfying tick sound, but it would be cool if that tick was synthesized so it could be a slightly different each time you heard it. It’s kind of banal digging down into this kind of detail, but the polish that exists is good enough that it gets the imagination juicing!

Another small detail: from the world map you can’t tell what stages have been entirely unlocked. Switching from a blue star to yellow or vice versa for each world would be a subtle and informative way to address that.

Enough rambling, if you got a kick out of Tetris Attacks, Zoo Keeper, Munny dolls pick up puzzlings for the introductory price of $3. and bug the devs for netplay =)