App Review: Ingenious

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Ingenious for iPhone/iDevices is the second in our Dr. Reiner Knizia App Review series. This is a game I actually own in real life so I was happy to see it on the iTunes App Store.
Ingenious (also called Genial) is a 1-2 player game played on a hexagonal board made up of smaller hexagons. Each player takes turns putting down a two-ended tile that has 2 out of the 6 possible colours on it. Players score points by counting the number of matching coloured pips that array off of any of the tile's flat sides (not including the pips on the tile you just put down).
Like Robot Master, which I reviewed previously, your final score is determined by your lowest score in the multiple point tracks corresponding to the six colours of pips.
Before I played the physical game I though the scoring would bog down gameplay but it's really not that bad, especially when two players get the hang of it. Scoring is not a concern with the App since it runs on everyone's favourite pocket computing system.
More on the App itself, Ingenious for iPhone is developed by 16 Tons and published by USM iPhone, publishers of the solid Settlers of Catan iDevice port. 
UI and Presentation
The App's UI is appropriately clean, minimal and modern, much like the Fantasy Flight box art and game pieces. 
The board features a nice animation when a game is set up, and one of three gently pulsing "themes" behind the board itself. 
The game music is nice and relaxing in a "New Age" kind of way. It is annoying that the app stops your ongoing iPod music. That's one of my big pet-peeves and adding music from your own library to play in-app is almost like adding insult to injury.
Game Modes
There are three main options. Pass-and-play, Tournament (VS AI) and Solitaire play. I haven't seen any online play yet.
I'm sure Pass and Play is fine, though if you have a real board it wont interest you much (unless you're traveling I suppose).
The Tournament play is challenging enough. Even if you've played a number of times, the randomness of the pieces you draw and the opponent AI do a fair job of messing with any longer term strategies you have in mind. The difficulty settings go up as you win games along the way.
Solitaire mode is surprisingly fun and relaxing. With scoring taken care of, it moves along at a brisk pace and you can still find a challenge in choosing the best placement out of the many options available to you.
Gameplay
Placing a tile is slightly cramped on the iPhone screen, though easy enough with practice. Simply tap a tile from your "hand" and it is moved to a buffer zone between it and the board. Draw a line in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion on either side of the tile to tilt it in that direction, then drag the correctly oriented piece to the board and tap it again to confirm the placement.
You can rotate a piece over the game board itself but that can be an exercise in frustration, even with the handy red overlays to indicate invalid placements. 
Some other reviewers have listed the tile placement and rotation as a major detriment to the App. I say this to the complainers, "get over it!" That kind of logic is like faulting a Flight Sim on a PC for not having enough knobs, levers and a wrap-around screen!
It's absolutely not the same as playing on your game board. That goes without saying. 16 Tons came up is the best way you could handle the piece rotation on the small screen.
The Bad
The only major downside I see to the app is the crashes. The App will just shut down half of the time when you switch modes between Solitaire and Tournament for instance. This is even after shutting the iDevice down and restarting after install. Hopefully the devs will fix that with a patch.
Final Thoughts
Ingenious is a great game to pass time on your own. The pass and play is not really of interest to me since handing the device over breaks up the game flow quite a bit. 
The App is a faithful, mobile version of the game if you already like it, and it's an addictive solitaire puzzler in the vein of Dominoes or Blokus if you haven't tried it.
The crashing isn't big enough of a problem to stop me from playing it. At $1.99, Ingenious is a great way to scratch that light strategy game itch. Go and get it!

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Ingenious for iPhone/iDevices is the second in our Dr. Reiner Knizia App Review series. This is a game I actually own in real life so I was happy to see it on the iTunes App Store.
Ingenious (also called Genial) is a 1-2 player game played on a hexagonal board made up of smaller hexagons. Each player takes turns putting down a two-ended tile that has 2 out of the 6 possible colours on it. Players score points by counting the number of matching coloured pips that array off of any of the tile's flat sides (not including the pips on the tile you just put down).
Like Robot Master, which I reviewed previously, your final score is determined by your lowest score in the multiple point tracks corresponding to the six colours of pips.
Before I played the physical game I though the scoring would bog down gameplay but it's really not that bad, especially when two players get the hang of it. Scoring is not a concern with the App since it runs on everyone's favourite pocket computing system.
More on the App itself, Ingenious for iPhone is developed by 16 Tons and published by USM iPhone, publishers of the solid Settlers of Catan iDevice port. 
UI and Presentation
The App's UI is appropriately clean, minimal and modern, much like the Fantasy Flight box art and game pieces. 
The board features a nice animation when a game is set up, and one of three gently pulsing "themes" behind the board itself. 
The game music is nice and relaxing in a "New Age" kind of way. It is annoying that the app stops your ongoing iPod music. That's one of my big pet-peeves and adding music from your own library to play in-app is almost like adding insult to injury.
Game Modes
There are three main options. Pass-and-play, Tournament (VS AI) and Solitaire play. I haven't seen any online play yet.
I'm sure Pass and Play is fine, though if you have a real board it wont interest you much (unless you're traveling I suppose).
The Tournament play is challenging enough. Even if you've played a number of times, the randomness of the pieces you draw and the opponent AI do a fair job of messing with any longer term strategies you have in mind. The difficulty settings go up as you win games along the way.
Solitaire mode is surprisingly fun and relaxing. With scoring taken care of, it moves along at a brisk pace and you can still find a challenge in choosing the best placement out of the many options available to you.
Gameplay
Placing a tile is slightly cramped on the iPhone screen, though easy enough with practice. Simply tap a tile from your "hand" and it is moved to a buffer zone between it and the board. Draw a line in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion on either side of the tile to tilt it in that direction, then drag the correctly oriented piece to the board and tap it again to confirm the placement.
You can rotate a piece over the game board itself but that can be an exercise in frustration, even with the handy red overlays to indicate invalid placements. 
Some other reviewers have listed the tile placement and rotation as a major detriment to the App. I say this to the complainers, "get over it!" That kind of logic is like faulting a Flight Sim on a PC for not having enough knobs, levers and a wrap-around screen!
It's absolutely not the same as playing on your game board. That goes without saying. 16 Tons came up is the best way you could handle the piece rotation on the small screen.
The Bad
The only major downside I see to the app is the crashes. The App will just shut down half of the time when you switch modes between Solitaire and Tournament for instance. This is even after shutting the iDevice down and restarting after install. Hopefully the devs will fix that with a patch.
Final Thoughts
Ingenious is a great game to pass time on your own. The pass and play is not really of interest to me since handing the device over breaks up the game flow quite a bit. 
The App is a faithful, mobile version of the game if you already like it, and it's an addictive solitaire puzzler in the vein of Dominoes or Blokus if you haven't tried it.
The crashing isn't big enough of a problem to stop me from playing it. At $1.99, Ingenious is a great way to scratch that light strategy game itch. Go and get it!

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Ingenious for iPhone/iDevices is the second in our Dr. Reiner Knizia App Review series. This is a game I actually own in real life so I was happy to see it on the iTunes App Store.
Ingenious (also called Genial) is a 1-2 player game played on a hexagonal board made up of smaller hexagons. Each player takes turns putting down a two-ended tile that has 2 out of the 6 possible colours on it. Players score points by counting the number of matching coloured pips that array off of any of the tile's flat sides (not including the pips on the tile you just put down).
Like Robot Master, which I reviewed previously, your final score is determined by your lowest score in the multiple point tracks corresponding to the six colours of pips.
Before I played the physical game I though the scoring would bog down gameplay but it's really not that bad, especially when two players get the hang of it. Scoring is not a concern with the App since it runs on everyone's favourite pocket computing system.
More on the App itself, Ingenious for iPhone is developed by 16 Tons and published by USM iPhone, publishers of the solid Settlers of Catan iDevice port. 
UI and Presentation
The App's UI is appropriately clean, minimal and modern, much like the Fantasy Flight box art and game pieces. 
The board features a nice animation when a game is set up, and one of three gently pulsing "themes" behind the board itself. 
The game music is nice and relaxing in a "New Age" kind of way. It is annoying that the app stops your ongoing iPod music. That's one of my big pet-peeves and adding music from your own library to play in-app is almost like adding insult to injury.
Game Modes
There are three main options. Pass-and-play, Tournament (VS AI) and Solitaire play. I haven't seen any online play yet.
I'm sure Pass and Play is fine, though if you have a real board it wont interest you much (unless you're traveling I suppose).
The Tournament play is challenging enough. Even if you've played a number of times, the randomness of the pieces you draw and the opponent AI do a fair job of messing with any longer term strategies you have in mind. The difficulty settings go up as you win games along the way.
Solitaire mode is surprisingly fun and relaxing. With scoring taken care of, it moves along at a brisk pace and you can still find a challenge in choosing the best placement out of the many options available to you.
Gameplay
Placing a tile is slightly cramped on the iPhone screen, though easy enough with practice. Simply tap a tile from your "hand" and it is moved to a buffer zone between it and the board. Draw a line in a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion on either side of the tile to tilt it in that direction, then drag the correctly oriented piece to the board and tap it again to confirm the placement.
You can rotate a piece over the game board itself but that can be an exercise in frustration, even with the handy red overlays to indicate invalid placements. 
Some other reviewers have listed the tile placement and rotation as a major detriment to the App. I say this to the complainers, "get over it!" That kind of logic is like faulting a Flight Sim on a PC for not having enough knobs, levers and a wrap-around screen!
It's absolutely not the same as playing on your game board. That goes without saying. 16 Tons came up is the best way you could handle the piece rotation on the small screen.
The Bad
The only major downside I see to the app is the crashes. The App will just shut down half of the time when you switch modes between Solitaire and Tournament for instance. This is even after shutting the iDevice down and restarting after install. Hopefully the devs will fix that with a patch.
Final Thoughts
Ingenious is a great game to pass time on your own. The pass and play is not really of interest to me since handing the device over breaks up the game flow quite a bit. 
The App is a faithful, mobile version of the game if you already like it, and it's an addictive solitaire puzzler in the vein of Dominoes or Blokus if you haven't tried it.
The crashing isn't big enough of a problem to stop me from playing it. At $1.99, Ingenious is a great way to scratch that light strategy game itch. Go and get it!

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