Extremely relaxing, one might even say a Zen puzzle, the name of which comes from the ancient Japanese game of rectangles, but the modern Shikaku Ultimate bears little resemblance to its historical progenitor.
The development of this game was carried out by the Celtic Spear company, it is little known in the gaming industry, but they have quite a lot of quite successful projects on Google Play. Perhaps the most significant is 'Matchstick Puzzles', with over fifteen million downloads. I couldn't find any information about them on the internet and decided to contact the developer directly to get a little comment about their company. To my surprise, they turned out to be our compatriots from Penza, in a team of two people who are developing mobile games.
The game is a playing field, divided into cells. At each level there are already filled cells of different colors with a number or an icon of a figure applied to it. To win the level, you need to fill the entire field with colored polygons. The number indicates the number of cells that need to be painted over with the same color for the correct construction of the figure, including the cell itself with the number. A cell with a figure icon, respectively, means the figure that needs to be built from the same cell, while there is no limit on the number of cells. It is rather difficult to explain the gameplay with text, so I suggest watching a short video with the gameplay.
At first glance, the game seems deceptively simple, but this is only at the first (introductory) levels, further the figures become more difficult, and the playing field is larger.
To the accompaniment to the rather complex, but at the same time not annoying gameplay, there is a pleasant and soothing musical composition, somewhat reminiscent of the work of the group Arms and Sleepers. The melody allows you to relax and fully enjoy the gameplay.
Despite the fact that this is a puzzle, everything is played in one breath, but, nevertheless, there are times when help is needed. In this case, a small number of hints are given, one hint colors the cell in the desired color. When the tips run out, you have two choices: watch an advertising video (15-30 seconds) for one tip, or buy a set of tips for real money – such a free-to-play game scheme is quite familiar and quite adequate.
At the moment, the game has 160 levels, the passage of which will take at least two or three hours. In his comment, the developer noted: 'We are currently preparing new levels for' Shikaku Ultimate 'and' Connect it! ' and developing a new game (it will be a furniture business simulator). '
As a conclusion, I want to say one thing: Celtic Spear has a good product that clearly demonstrates that the original idea is much more important than cool 3D graphics, and a couple of people are enough to create a decent game.
Thank you for your attention, dear readers!
