Price: $1.99    Rating: 7/10    By Anna Papachristos

Puzzles have become a staple in the gaming world.  From old-fashioned jigsaw puzzles to arcade classics like Tetris, people have found amusement in piecing things together.  With iRis AG by Rogue Pirate Ninja Interactive, LLC, users are presented with a more challenging, futuristic approach to the traditional puzzle game.

Like many other puzzle games, iRis AG involves matching falling, colored blocks.  However, this fast-paced game adds a twist – instead of guiding the blocks as they fall to the desired position, players must move the world in order to connect like-colored blocks and eliminate them.

As the blocks fall, players need only swipe their finger back and forth to adjust the position of the world.  Players only have control over those blocks that have stopped moving.  Once four or more of the same color are linked, including diagonally and zig-zagged, they disappear.  If said blocks happen to be underneath the pile, the whole tower will be eliminated along with them.  By creating and eliminating these piles, players achieve larger combos and earn extra points.

iRis AG offers two game modes, as well as three difficulty levels – easy, normal and hard.  Players can replay and master each level as many times as they wish, and with auto-save, players do not have to worry about losing game progress if interrupted by calls or texts on their iPhone.  Also, while playing, users can enjoy the game’s own soundtrack or choose to listen to music from their own iTunes library instead.

In the bottom corner, iRis AG displays two bars, one green and one red.  The green bar rises to indicate how close the player is to the next level.  The red bar, known as the mass bar, rises as more and more blocks build up on the screen.  Players must keep combining and earning points because once the mass bar fills, the game is over.  Scores can then be posted online to the global leaderboard, where users can battle it out for the top score against players all acorss the world.

The 3D nature of iRis AG makes the game more difficult to acclimatize to than most puzzle games because of the awkwardness in perceiving where colors line up, but the game’s customizable options make it stand out.  Unlike other puzzle games, iRis AG advertises a colorblind mode, something most do not take into account with such games.  Dependent upon successful color matching, this game allows even those with the impairment to enjoy this interesting game.

iRis AG requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and is compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch.