Flip Disc Review

I think it’s fair to say that we all get a little excited when something that looks unique comes to the App Store. And it’s also good to see Chillingo’s name on a product since they seem to be bringing out a lot of good apps. With these two truths firmly in place I dove into Flip Discs&#8230-

And after a few hours with the game I’m still not sure that I’m really into Flip Disc. Developer Polar Motion has put out a good and challenging game, but (excuse the pun) I can’t help but flip back and forth as to whether or not I like it or not.

The concept of the game is simple. You’re presented with five rings that form your board. Different colored balls drop into the outer most ring and will keep going down ring by ring until it gets to the lowest/smallest ring, or is blocked by another ball. You can twist the different rings to maneuver the balls so that you get a complete line of five of the same color that will then disappear.

There are some special balls that come into play that will give you some bonuses like time stoppage, explosives and a wild card.

Once you get ten of these lines done the level is over and you go onto the next level. This keeps going until you get through ten levels (or 100 lines) at which point you are crowned a Flip Disc Master and the game is over.

The controls of the game are pretty simple. Using simple touches you tap on arrows that will let you control the various rings and then you can tap turning arrows that will rotate that particular ring.

As I said, the controls are simple and work well enough, but I didn’t understand why we couldn’t tap the ring we wanted to move or maybe a bar on the side that let you pick one of the five rings. I found myself having to remember which button moved it up and which one went down &#8211- I know, I know&#8230- sounds pretty obvious but when you’re trying to rush through things it gets tougher.

And it would be nice to let your finger actually turn the wheels instead of just clicking through them. This seems like the type of thing we’ve grown to expect from apps, but Flip Disc decided to go away from it.

But it does work and after a while I got better at it all, so maybe I should just give it more time.

But there are two things that did get to me with this game and they are what causes the flipping. First off, I really hated the music in the game. There is no real cohesiveness with the music. It starts off with your basic game/techno stuff and when you end a game it goes to some sort of country twang. Each level has a different song, and I really didn’t like any of them. Sure I can (and did) turn the volume off, but it still left a bad taste in my mind. Oh&#8230- and the annoying siren that goes off when you get close to losing&#8230- Yikes!

The other thing is that the game is very repetitive. Yes, many puzzle games are repetitive, but this one really could have pushed things a little. Even if they went from circles to ovals, that would have been a nice change. The only real change is the music and you know my thoughts on that.

I did find some enjoyment (and a good amount of challenge) from the game and it’s nice to see some different variations of the puzzle theme. There is more than enough to make you want to want to become a Flip Disc Master.

But there is also enough stuff to make you want to just stop playing and move on. I guess it all depends on where you are when you play it that will lead you to which side you Flip. Oh, and oddly enough, there is no “flipping” in this game. I guess it’s just in how people will feel about it.

The Good

Nice Concept
Smooth Game Play

The Bad

Bizarre Music &amp- Sounds
Game Gets Repetitive
Could Use A Global Scoreboard