[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":691423,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"gbunfiltered,","session":"B"}']
A few days ago, my Twitter feed lit-up with buzz about this new iOS puzzle game called Triple Town. I decided to download it and give it a try. My, "bathroom breaks" at work have been increasing in length ever since.
Much like the rest of the puzzle game milieu, the goal of Triple Town is to match three like objects. The game takes place on a board with a set number of "tiles." When the board fills up, the game is over.
The lowest-grade piece in the hierarchy of Triple Town is a plot of grass. when you match three of these grass pieces — in an "L" shape or line — they combine into one tile and form a bush. Three bushes combine to form a tree. Three trees form a small house. On and on until you eventually get to castles floating in the sky.
The bears of Triple Town are where things get less static. When a bear gets put on the board, it moves one space per turn. At this point your citizens will shout and run back into their homes, but there doesn't seem to be any penalty to letting bears prowl your city ad infinitum — except for maybe being considered a cruel mayor.
If you manage to trap the bears with carefully placed shrubs, you get a special type of block — the gravestone. I guess being surrounded by a circle of foliage leaves these deceptively cute bears with no choice but to immediately keel over and die. If you can match three of these gravestones — a combination I still have trouble queuing up on purpose — they make a church.
What I have just described to you probably sounds like at least a dozen other puzzle games you have played. But where Triple Town succeeds is in mindset rather than mechanics. Where most puzzle games are destructive — Blocks, Bubbles, or Pills blowing up — Triple Town is a purely constructive experience.
I didn't even notice my score being tallied up until after my second go at settlement building. Triple Town is more subtle than that; it doesn't aim to throw numbers in your face on the downbeats of an endless techno loop.
Triple Town is just as much fun when played scoreless. Instead of nervously eyeing the scoreboard, you can just tap away and watch your settlement rise up out of the ground. It is a remarkably soothing experience — much more so than any other puzzle game I have played on iOS.
This laid-back nature makes Triple Town a perfect addition to your iPhone's games folder. Whether your game barely outlasts the bus ride, or you build an epic village with a floating castle, you will always feel like you have accomplished something.