From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch
Shikaku, the box puzzle game, is one of those games that seems simple to play. Once you start playing, you soon realize that some thinking is required. When you first open the game, a simple menu appears (figure 1). The “Learn the Game” block in the middle is a simple tutorial showing how to play the game. On the bottom of the screen are links to rate the app in the Google Play Store, information about the game and settings. The settings are simple. You can enable/disable sounds, enable hints, and vibrate when making mistakes. The “Game Store” block at the bottom starts in‑app purchases. More on that later.
The game is easy to play. Each puzzle contains a box with some numbers (figure 2). The objective of the game is to place rectangles (boxes) all over the screen such that each box contains a single number and has an area equal to that number. This is done by sliding your finger or stylus over the screen. If you make a mistake, tapping on the box clears it.
There are three difficulty levels (figure 3). The difference is in the size of the puzzle grid. The larger puzzles include bigger numbers which require more thought in how to place the boxes. I’ll admit that I’ve had to undo more than once.
With the game you get 68 puzzles. Additional puzzle packs can be purchased. Prices are fairly reasonable: 30 puzzles for $0.99, 90 for $1.49 and 1500 for $2.49.
There are two minor things I don’t like. If you are playing one level of games and want to switch to another, there is no way to get back to the main menu. You have to exit the game and restart it. In fairness, I would have probably never noticed that except I was changing screens a lot when writing this review.
Although I haven’t done it yet, my other minor quibble is with the in‑app purchases. You can only buy puzzle packs that contain an equal amount of easy, medium and hard puzzles. If I decide to buy, I’d like to have the option of buying only hard puzzles.
Shikaku is a free download from the Google Play Store. Give it a try. You might like it.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Thanks for reading.