Tikal

Review of the game: three plays in, I might give it 4 stars. It's a nice little game, though a bit stressful (of the variety where you can never do all the things you'd like to) and a bit flat (not a wealth of different pathways to go down or opportunities for a brilliant tactical maneuver if only you are clever enough). It's pleasant. Review of the app: This gets a star off. The tutorial is archaic. The constant confirmation screens are in the way. And especially as you begin to learn, the list of costs for different moves or points for different treasure combinations could be more accessible. The real killer, though, is the bugs. The computer occasionally makes illegal moves (crossing 11 stones and only taking 4ap happened twice in my second game) or showing dead tiles, where you can see it but not move to it, and can later put a tile over the old one, happens. There is no real way to determine how many levels of a temple can be uncovered until the game tells you you are done. Just a lot of head scratchers, probably this was only tested by people who are familiar with the game. Overall: not a bad addition to the collection if you find it on sale, but nothing to get excited about.

Once you get the hang of it, Tikal is a clever thing to ponder. It is a little fiddly, though, having to precisely tap your wee little cars to move them, then confirm or deny you want to do so ... Lots of taps go errant in the course of a game. (You always have the chance to confirm a move, though if there's a more comprehensive undo function, I haven't found it.) The gameplay itself may not be to everybody's taste, as there is a lengthy table of actions you can perform each turn, and each has a different cost associated with it, which means lots of little details to remember. Eventually I got the hang of it, and enjoyed managing the limited resources available to out maneuver my opponents, but I did have to hang in there with it. I should mention that the tutorial is all text--no art or helpful diagrams--so it made not a lick of sense on first read through. Again, it took some patience and perseverance to sort it all out, so bear that in mind if you're looking for a game you can pick up and play right out of the gate. To me, the effort was worth it. It's not an addictive every-day game, but a worthwhile weekly puzzle to crack when I need some mental calisthenics.

Seems like a great board game for any turn based strategy buffs. However, this game, at least in my experience, is very buggy and unstable. I've had it crash several times after only playing it a few times. The interface leaves some features to be desired. It's hard to tell when I do or don't have a worker selected, or where my workers and the opposing workers are. It would be nice to have an easy way to have the game point out where all the workers are (distinguishing between the players as well), and an easier way to deselect a worker than trying to hunt down the one I selected (potentially by accident). I also encountered an unpleasant bug in which the game went into a perpetual state of thinking I had some nonexistent worker selected, and asking me if I wanted to move him here or there, so j couldn't get anything done at all. Luckily, my AI opponent must have run into the same bug, because his workers sat idly by as well! I had already had the upper hand, so I emerged the winner. I give the game 4 stars for being a great strategy game, but the interface and stability really need some work.