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Mark Webb
United States
Verona
Pennsylvania
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The Stats:
Current Price: $2.99
Developer/Publisher: NaturalMotionGames Ltd
Version: 1.182
Size: 128 KB
Multiplayer: Pass and Play, Global Highscore board.
AI: No
Info link:
http://www.naturalmotiongames.com/games/jenga/
Android Market link:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.naturalmotion.j3n6...
The Good:
- Realistic Looking 3D graphics.
- Good Physics Simulation.
- Up to 4 player Pass and Play.
- Achievement System.
- App2SD Support (What’s this?...See later in the article)
The Bad:
- Arcade Mode is not very board game like.
- A digitial version of a dexterity game? I don’t know about this...
Gameplay:
Jenga is a dexterity game from Hasbro where you build a tower using rectangular blocks that are arranged three abreast. The next row continues with three more blocks stacked on top of the first three, except turned 90 degrees. Each new row is again rotated, so that when building the tower is finished, you have a tower with alternating rows with the ends of the pieces facing out, and the other rows having the long side of a piece facing out. The game begins having players take turns removing one piece from this tower of blocks, and replacing it in the same fashion as the original tower was built, at the top of the tower as it exists now. Admittedly, I probably don’t have to describe Jenga to you, as it is found in most Wal-Marts, Targets, Toys R Us’s and as spawned several sequels as well as knock offs by other companies.
Play continues with players taking turns removing a piece and placing it atop the tower, until one unfortunate player makes the move that causes the tower to come crashing down, losing the game. Jenga is built on a simple concept which is the basis of many dexterity games, such as Topple, Bottle Topps, Wallamoppi, Bausack, Villa Paletti, and others, being “don’t be the guy that knocks the stucture over” Eventhough it is a simple concept, making the game of Jenga very playable to people of all skillsl, and ages, if played with skilled players, who are taking the game seriously, can be a satisying, stategic, and even a little stressful experience. The benefit of a digital version of game like this is that you don’t have to rebuild the tower in order to play again.
Implementation:
The Android version of Jenga is very beautiful, graphically. The 3D rendering going on in this game makes the tower of blocks look almost like you could touch it, as if it were actual blocks. The game even prints “Jenga” on the side of the wooden blocks, just like the real game. Also, similar to real life, the word “Jenga” appears both upright, and upside down randomly when the tower is presented, because c’mon, in real life, are you going to build the tower with all the pieces having the word face the same direction? Unless your name is Adiran Monk, the answer is probably no. The game also presents the tower on a virtual coffee table in the middle of a virtual living room complete with couches and artwork on the walls.
The bad thing with the Android OS is that the hardware specs of each phone varies. But, this app requires Android 2.1 (Elcair) or higher, which does weed out the phones not capable of doing a good job with the graphics and the physics calculations. Other reviews I have read did not raise any issues on lag or other problems where graphics or playability was concerned. My phone is not a dual core hot rod either. For this and other reviews, my review platform is a HTC Evo 4G, which was released in summer of 2010.
The game play is all played by touch on the screen. Pinch to zoom works in the 3D space, as well as swiping on any area that is not the tower will either rotate the world or move your view up or down according to your swipe. Touching a block on the tower serves two purposes: One is to select the block you wish to manipulate, and the other is that it highlights the block with a visual cue to tell you how safe it is to move that piece. White is “mostly harmless”, pink is somewhere in the middle, and red is “unless you are pretty good at this, the tower is coming down”. If all you do is tap a block and see this color, you can tap again on a different block and it will change the selection. If you move a selected block, you are locked in to that block until you either put the block on top, or the tower falls. If you are moving a block you have two methods. Tapping the selected block will push the block, similar to the real world move of poking a loose block from one side to have it come out the other side. The other move is to press and hold on the selected block and then to drag your finger. This will show a line of arrows showing the force and direction you are taking the piece.
The Jenga app for Android has three play modes. Classic is you versus gravity. You take and place pieces until it falls. Score is recorded as how many rows high were you able to achieve before it crashed, as well as total time taken. Pass and Play is the exact same gameplay as Classic, except that 2-4 players will rotate turns until the game is over. Arcade mode gets a little strange. The pieces are each one of four colors. Placing three in a row of the same color get you bonus points. Doing things quickly earns you points. Good moves may also provide coins, which can be used to buy power ups, such as a wild card block which can be any color, or a redo ability which will undo a fallen tower and let you try again. This mode just seemed strange to me. I understand the color matching thing, but the coins and power ups seemed like a lot of junk with little payoff or benefit. Even if you bought an item, you still had to extract the block with the power up on it to use it. To me it was more satisfying in Classic Mode trying to beat a solid number of a high tower instead of point and coins and such.
The arcade mode was one of two small nits to pick with this game. I can just not play Arcade mode and that is ok. The other sticky point for me is probably a little more confusing to explain. I have read many posts on BGG such as, “If I play a video game version of a physical board game, am I playing that board game?” I am not going to rehash that discussion here, only to say that my own opinion is that I tend toward the more liberal viewpoint of if it is a representation of the game, even online, even against AI, I count it. If I play Catan on Andoid, I feel I’ve played Catan. Except in this game. My skill in playing real life Jenga does not translate in any way to being better in this game. Kind of like how being a expert marksman with a slingshot does not make you better at playing Angry Birds. I even feel that when playing Disc Drivin’, I get a closer experience of playing Pitchcar, than playing Jenga with this app. PLEASE. Do not get me wrong...I really like this app, recommend it even. But it crosses that line for me back to being a video game. Instead of the same tense experience when playing a dexterity game with friends, this is more a minute or two while waiting in line at the DMV type of game. And for being that, it is a really good game.
iOS version:
NaturalMotion has also created an iOS version of Jenga. From what I have seen in screenshots from other reviews, the look and feel and graphics quality as well the same style of play looks to be the same in the iOS version, although I do not have personal experience to contribute here, I am just letting iOS users know it is available if it is of interest to them.
A Quick Intro to App2SD support:
As I mentioned before, specs vary from phone to phone with Android. As a result, the various companies decide what features are in their phone or other device. There are differing amounts of main storage space, and wether or not an SD card is present or how large it can be. Because of all of these differences, apps actually have to be specifically programmed have the app itself be stored on an SD card. If these abilities are not programmed by the developer, the app has to remain in the main storage. Depending on the device and what other apps installed, this space can be very tight. I have changed RSS readers, email clients, podcast programs, music players to ones that supported the SD card because I had to. I have also deleted several games to free room in my main storage, again, out of necessity. So in my reviews, I will always mention App2SD support,the ability to put a program on the SD card,as it is definitely a feature in my eyes or a great liabilty if not present.
For this review, Jenga is good... It supports being put on the SD card, and is a small size to boot.
Conclusion:
This app is a quality piece of work. Runs great, looks great and is lots fun to play. As I mentioned before, it does miss a bit for recreating the actual tense feel of Jenga, but instead becomes a more recreational video game.
Rating   8/10
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The Stats:
