Culica is a puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is a hybrid of tetris and the rubix cube. Before we continue, I must say that this puzzle game is devilishly tough. I did manage to complete the easy difficulty once by sheer luck after several tries. It might be due to the lack of technique or skills or simply the game is that hard.

The gameplay concept is simple. You have four sides forming a circular square shape. Something like a square with the four corners taken away. You have 4 different colours. You are suppose to make each side a unique colour. In other words to win the game you have to make 1 whole side yellow, 1 whole side red and the other two green and blue. Think the rubix cube and it is something like that. You are given tetris styled blocks to place into the shape, changing the current colour of the block to the one that you are replacing. Every block given allows you to change 2 colour. (see the screenies, gives much more information and idea of the game)

Sounds simple? No it isn’t at all. It is tough, hard and difficult (I know they all mean the same thing. It is just to emphasize on the difficulty of the game). It is a new concept, a new style of puzzle game. From reading their site they seem to be coming out with an actual product itself. The iPhone game however is perhaps a demonstration of the gameplay of the product. There isn’t much to say about the gameplay. It is that simple yet so complicated. The irony of seeing just a few pieces of squares to be replaced seem that simple but in actual fact brain wrecking is sometimes a little painful to the player himself. I myself, felt that huge stab at my intelligence when I fail to complete the easy difficulty with ease.

The 3 other difficulties are worst. The squares shrink and when they shrink and disappear, it is game over. In other words it was like a timed challenge. No more can you spend minutes after minutes to think where to place that block. Shrink and disappear? Game over I’m afraid. I haven’t actually try out the other difficulties because the easy is making me cry already. I don’t know what the other difficulties might do to me.

To make the game replayable, there is a highscore table available. It categorizes players wins by the number of moves taken and the time spent and rank them accordingly. Nevertheless my actually win was within 6 moves and completed it in around a time of 2 minutes. Not too bad but I swear it was luck. The game looks simple but not very sweet to me. As in it is a puzzle game so it is the concept that matters not so much the graphics but the blocks, menus and the overall graphics was uninspiring.

A suggestion would be to include some sort of indication of what the next few blocks are for that will introduce some sort of fairer play and strategy since the current gameplay bases itself quite a lot on luck. Other than that, is there any game guide or a video of some dude owning the game to inspire me? Else this is one tough challenging difficult demanding game.

official site link: culica.com
[screenshots taken from the official site]

Other articles that might interest you

iPhone Block Drop Puzzle Game Review

DropZap Review

Mezopuzzle iPhone Puzzle Game Review

iPhone Auditorium – Music Puzzle Game Review

Hangman RSS Game Review

CubeHead iPhone Game Review