Zentomino – Whenever I review a strategy game app, I pretty much always describe it as “hard.”  This may say more about me than the apps.  That said, Zentomino is a hard game, but not too hard.

Zentomino is a pentomino app for the iPhone.  I had never heard of the word “pentomino” before today, and yet I remember playing one of these games – non-digitally – as a kid.  In layman’s terms, pentominoes are shapes made up of five congruent squares.  There are twelve pentominoes that make up the basis of pentomino games.

In Zentomino, you use the shapes, or pentominoes, to fill in different pictures. Zentomino is similar to other Chinese puzzle game apps like Tangrams and TanZen.

Until you play it, my description of Zentomino may sound complicated, but it is surprisingly simple in action.  Zentomino’s features are easy to use.  You touch and slide shapes to move them around, tap once to rotate, and double tap a shape to flip it into a mirror image.  There are 171 puzzles, with a promise of more to come in the form of updates.

The best part about Zentomino is that it offers hints, which goes along with the fact that I find strategy games to be hard.  If you double tap a blank spot on the screen, Zentomino will show you where one of the pieces belongs.  But like a good teacher, Zentomino does not give you the answers, only a few hints to help you on your journey.

Little White Bear Studios has a good track record with app development, including the previously released TanZen.  Zentomino appropriately won a silver medal from Pocket Gamer.  Zentomino is attractive, challenging and peaceful to play. Zentomino Lite starts you off with 27 free games.  At only $1.99, I highly recommend the full version of Zentomino as your next strategy game app purchase for your iPhone.

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category: Editor's Picks, Games, Strategy