It’s another puzzler entry from Clickgamer apps. However, does it freshen up the app store?

Potpourrii ($0.99)

Chillingo has published a cute, yet lacking, game developed by Abstraction games called Potpourrii. This game is all about the seasons which are the core focus of the game. At its core, this is a very simple game, one that kids might enjoy.

Presentation

This game doesn’t have any spectacular graphics to it, just one main screen where you play the game. The little gnomes around the screen are cute and fit the theme of the game well. If you are looking for a game with spectacular graphics, this game is not for you. However if you like cutesy gnomes who wave at you, you might enjoy this one.

Controls

The controls for this game are a bit hard to get a handle on. You use a wheel on the left side to control the cannon that shoots the seasonal spirits out but it was pretty awkward for me. The cannon goes around pretty quickly so if you’re trying to aim precisely, you have to get it just right and sometimes, it takes too long and your shot is gone. Even after playing several levels of the game, it was hard for me to get a good grasp of it.

Gameplay

Again, in general, this is a fairly simple game. The seasonal spirits get cast into a clockwise turning pond by gnomes unless you can get there with the cannon fast enough to shoot it out yourself. To accumulate points, you have to use the cannon to catch a spirit and then shoot it out and pop the spirit from the previous season. Use the seasonal spirits to accumulate enough points to move to the next level. If you make a chain and pop all of the spirits in the chain, you get more points. Once you get enough points, you move to the next level or season.

Each level is a new season and has a different theme to it. The first one is Spring and there are ducks swimming around in the pond. The different themes add a little more cuteness to the game, but does not add any additional difficulty. The additions are there just for looks. It is still fairly easy to beat the normal level. I played both normal and hard and the hard went so fast that I couldn’t pass the first level. However I think that if the controls were better, I would be able to get a better handle on hard play. The controls are just too hard to really play this game at full capacity.

Suggestions

I would highly suggest changing up the controls on this game. Because this is a game for a touch screen device, use it! Instead of using a wheel to move the cannon around, you could use your finger to move it around and catch the spirits. I think this would make the game a lot more user friendly. I would also add more gameplay to this. I mean, all you are doing in this game is shooting the seasonal spirits out. If there were some kind of bonus rounds or additional content, I think this game could be better and more entertaining.

Conclusions

In my opinion, this game is more for kids than adults. After I figured out how to play, I wanted to see if there was anything additional to the game but quickly found out that it was pretty much the same thoughout the game. The controls made it even more difficult for me to enjoy this game as I was taking more time being frustrated with them than enjoying the game. I think this is one game that you can pass on unless you have kids and want to keep them entertained.