People who bitch about touchscreen games like to complain that “they’re so simple.” Those people need to shut up and play Finger Tied.
The lack of sticks or buttons may make it seem like players don’t need much dexterity when playing games on a smartphone or tablet. Finger Tied from Streaming Colour Studios proves that this isn’t true. The motion puzzle game sounds simple enough at first. Tap and hold on an icon in the starting point on the screen then slide your fingertip to the endpoint. You’ll need to keep touching the screen the whole time and can’t slide into the area outside of the black playfield. Easy, right?
But, of course, the rules of the game change the experience so that things don’t stay that straightforward. More fingers come into play and the way to victory becomes ever more circuitous. All the black squares on a puzzle need to get filled in on the way to an exit but you can’t double back on your path. Then you’ll run into blocks where you have to enter and exit from specific directions. The puzzles where you’ll need to figure out how to twist one finger around another on the same hand? They’ll make you wish superhero stretchy powers like Reed Richards. Then you’ll run into paths where only one icon can pass through.
Of course, the faster you do all of this, the better you’ll score. The deeper you go in, the more intricate the puzzles get. And if you fancy coming up with some unique Finger Tied torments, you can use the built-in level editor to create and share puzzles of your own. One caveat that would-be players should know is that you’ll need to turn off multitouch gestures in order to play. Finger Tied is best played on a flat, immobile surface. This isn’t a game for your morning commute into the office. Other than that, Finger Tied shines as a clever exemplar of how a great design concept can create a altogether different kind of complexity and entertainment for dedicated players to wrestle with.
Finger Tied [$0.99, iPad only; Apple App Store]
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