DynoGems is one of “those” puzzle games. You know, the ones that you’ve played before but can never remember what the name of the original was.

DynoGems ($1.99)

In this case it’s an unorthodox marble shooter/Bust-A-Move combo. It’s been a while since I’ve played this style of game, and I’m not sure how much innovation DynoGems brings to the genre, but what it does quite well is provide a charming and lighthearted atmosphere that you can’t help but be drawn into.

Presentation

Normally I’d talk about the graphics first in this section, but for DynoGems I want to talk about the music and sound effects. The repetitive sound effects like getting tiles and putting them back are pretty average. Like most repetitive sounds, if you dwell on them they can get a bit annoying. Thankfully, the other sounds interspersed throughout the game more than make up for it.

The sound effects for the various icons and power-ups sound pretty good. What I really like, however, are the voices for things like “ready” and “go” at the beginning of a level or “great” when you make multiple matches in the same move. My favorite is when what sounds like three or 4 people go “yeah” if you have more than a certain number of tiles in one match. As for the music, it’s very well done. Sadly, the menu music is actually better than the in-game music, but it’s all of exceptional quality. The menu music reminds me of something that would be on the soundtrack for the show Viva Piñata.

The graphics are not the best you’ve ever seen, but they look good and have a certain charm. The tiles and icons look decent enough and from time to time a sparkle will ripple through the tiles. The special effects when a lightening bolt rips across the screen or a bomb blows up look pretty good. The background is also pretty decent, especially in that it changes from time to time. I like the way the dinosaur looks when it stands up after you beat a level, but it looks kind of goofy during play. I think that might be partially due to the perspective, which is sort of that same funky angle used at the beginning of Star Wars movies to display the “here’s what came before” text.

Controls

The controls in DynoGems are pretty basic. To move your dinosaur left and right you can either swipe with your finger or use left / right buttons that appear in the lower left corner of the screen. This is configurable in the options menu, and personally I prefer the swipe method. On the right side of the screen there are two buttons to “get” and “put” tiles, and in the upper right there’s a button for using magic.

This is really the only inconvenient button in the group. For the most part you’ll keep your right hand on the “get” and “put” buttons and use your left hand to move the dinosaur, but it’s somewhat of a disruption of game play to have to look for a second to see exactly where the magic button is.

Game Play

In DynoGems you play a Triceratops that for some reason must keep a descending wall of tiles from reaching him. The wall is comprised of seven columns, and each column contains tiles that are either a solid color or have some sort of emblem on them. In order to get rid of the colored tiles you must match at least four of them. The only requirement is that the tiles all be touching somehow. They don’t have to be in a straight row or column. To match tiles you place your dinosaur in front of the column you want to take tiles from and press the “get” button. You can hold up to 3 tiles of the same color in your mouth at one time. You then place the dinosaur in front of the column where you want to place the tiles and press the “put” button. Keep in mind that unlike a lot of matching games, you can move tiles to different columns without actually matching them. This might be necessary at times in order to get tiles out of the way.

The one special colored tile is the grey tile. This tile can be matched with any color, but it cannot be moved. There are also three tiles that have emblems on them. They also cannot be moved but once again can be matched with any color. The bomb icon will explode when matched, removing any tiles in the immediate area surrounding the bomb. The lightening icon will send a bolt of lightening out, destroying every tile in the same row as the icon. The question mark will send either a star or power-up your way. You actually have to catch the item to get it. I’m not sure what the star does, other than there’s a total for stars on the right side of the screen. The power-ups include a clock, which freezes the progress of the wall for a bit, an arrow that destroys several rows at the top of the wall, and a lightening bolt that destroys whatever column the dragon is in. These power-ups all have a one time use.

There are two modes of play: classic and endless. In classic mode you have levels, and as you make matches the level meter gets filled up. When it’s full you’ve beaten the level and you advance to the next. If you need to quit the game for any reason, when you restart you’ll be asked whether you want to start back at level one or on the last level you played. In endless mode there are no breaks. You just keep going until the wall is upon you. If you have to quit a game in endless mode you’ll start over the next time you play. I was pretty divided on which mode I liked better. I find the endless mode to be much more of a challenge, but I like the idea of having some sort of goal to reach with classic mode.

Suggestions

My main suggestion would be to allow the player to advance the wall of bricks manually. This could apply to either game mode, but would be most useful in Classic mode, especially on the earlier levels. I’d also like to see the magic button possibly moved to right above the “get” and “put” buttons instead of at the top of the screen. Finally, a little warning (screen flash, noise, something) when the wall is almost ready to overtake you.

Conclusion

I can’t say that DynoGems is has a lot of innovation going for it. What it does, however, is take a solid concept, implement it well, and add an atmospheric element that makes it worth playing. The music is good, the sound effects amusing, and overall it’s just a fun game to play.