Bonsai Blast

 

£1.79

It’s a puzzle game where you shoot your balls into a snake. Sort of…

 

The objective in Bonsai Blast, like in so many other puzzle games, is to group together variously coloured objects. In this case you need to group marbles before they reach the yin-yang symbol at the end of each level.

To stop the marble snake you must chain the same colour marbles in groups greater than three. Firing marbles is simple. Touch the screen in the area you wish to fire and the marble will be shot in that direction. As the game advances you will face various obstacles that block the line of site trajectory of the marble, you will then be faced with risky ricochet shots off walls or wait for the marble snake to edge closer to the yin yang and hopefully clear the line before the marbles fall into the hole. Conveniently the canon can be mounted in various regions of the Bonsai garden to aid your progress.

You can choose adventure mode that gets progressively tougher by introducing more colour marbles and larger obstructions, or just do an all-out challenge mode where you face an endless line of marbles until the first ball reaches the hole.

Despite its simplistic design, Bonsai Blast is a visual treat with colourful backgrounds, all with a definitive oriental concept. The marbles feature a glossy texture and special power-up marbles vibrantly sparkle and glint.

Excellent sound effects and calming oriental rhythms help the action, however the music in particular will wear thin on you after a while. Nevertheless, this is an attractively presented, smooth-running game that looks great on the iPhones crisp screen. It’s disappointing that all levels are played on a flat plain, but the sparse use of the phones accelerometers abilities is to the games benefit.

Mark Craven