683rd played so far
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Iphone
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Steph Tirion
So we continue going through a bunch of iOS games and doing so involves looking at a lot of puzzle games, as that’s what the platform was about at this time – the cynic in me says that it’s the trend that led to simpler puzzle games like the match three games that dominate now.
Eliss looks very abstract, which suits with all of that, and it mostly makes me wonder whether I can work it out.
Our Thoughts
Eliss looks simple and, for the most part, it is. You combine and split spheres (they are supposed to be planets, but most planets I know aren’t that malleable) and have them in the right area to get absorbed and disappear. These ‘portals’, or squeesars, are of a certain size and colour, and so you need to combine, split and move spheres to let this happen. The phone interface makes it harder because you get given limited space, while the spheres obviously need to be usable on a touch screen. Having spheres overlap does health damage, doing it for too long ends the level, so you’re spending a lot of time on space management, trying to figure out how you can split and combine the blobs without getting in the way.
The levels build a bunch of mechanisms to make it more complicated – things like whirlpools that pull your blobs together, different sized portals (including undersized) and bright red blobs that attack everyone else.
The graphics are incredibly minimalistic, which suits the puzzles. There’s little that’s unneeded, which keeps gameplay focused well.
Final Thoughts
Eliss is focused on its puzzles, from every angle including its graphics. Its difficulty rises quite rapidly, although I’m not sure how many levels there really are – this might be completely intended anyway. Play it while you can – your new phone might not, and this will be gone.