Top Pick: Smiles

No hand-held gaming platform would be complete without a solid puzzle game. This has practically become a rule of thumb as many people contribute the original Gameboy’s success to Tetris. From that point forward every single portable gaming console has had at least one great puzzle game that everybody remembers. Fortunately, being a webOS user we have a ridiculous amount of great puzzle games to choose from. With that said, how many of them are so great that you will remember them five years from now? I sincerely believe that the only puzzle game currently in the Palm App Catalog that will stay in my memory will be Smiles from Skyhronics Entertainment. This game can go toe to toe with the likes of Bejeweled, Tetris, and Columns. It is literally that good!

The game is obviously very cute and cartoon like in nature. The vibrant colors and childish game pieces are so darn cuddly that it could make the coldest of souls crack a smile. The animations and game design in itself are perfect in every way for this type of game. The only negative I could see is that some may dismiss this game as a serious puzzler due to its childish appearance. However, there are three different themes in this game so everyone can find a look that they can love.

Smiles is a matching game similar to Bejeweled in that you have to match a minimum of three pieces to clear them out. Instead of using a gesture-based control scheme like other games of this type all you have to do in Smiles is tap. By tapping on a piece it is swapped with the “Current” piece that is either at the top or left of the board depending on screen orientation. This makes for lightning fast gameplay that allows one to rack up insanely long combos. With enough practice I have been able to keep a combo going for roughly five minutes! Also, by using this tap method my thumb never gets sore from constantly rubbing across a warm screen. The developer has also added a really cool feature where you can rotate the game board by either changing the phone orientation or by tapping the little arrows on screen. This feature adds a whole new element to how you play because you can have the pieces fall in different directions.

No great puzzle game would be complete without re-playability. Skyhronics Entertainment has you covered there as Smiles is actually two games in one. If you are the type of gamer who likes lightning fast gameplay then Smiles Drop is where you want to be. With Smiles Drop you don’t have to wait to make a move. The game is as fast as you can move your fingers and it throws little zingers at you like covering game pieces in ice that you have to break.  However, if you are more into puzzle games that move slower but require a lot of strategy then Smiles Zen is what you are looking for. Smiles Zen requires the same type of thought process as Solitaire or Mahjong. To top off having two games in one the developer has thrown in 14 more game modes to play as well. So let’s just say this thing has replay value coming out the wazoo!

Everyone who follows my writing here at webOSroundup knows the sound in a game can either make it or break it for me. In a game like this if the sound was bad it would ruin the whole experience. Thankfully the developer has thrown in an awesome up-beat techno soundtrack. In all honesty, I would actually buy the soundtrack to this game if they offered it! The rest of the sound effects in the game suit their purpose just fine too. So, Smiles has the sound department in the bag. Nothing to complain about here at all.

In the end I feel that this game is worth every dime I spent on it. As a matter of fact, I think the developer sold themselves short by only charging $4.99! At that price it is a steal. However, if you only want Smiles Drop or Smiles Zen you can pick them up individually for $2.99 but why be cheap? You might as well kick in the extra couple bucks and get it all. Five bucks is a small price to pay for a game of this caliber.

[Click here to read more about smiles and download it to your Palm Pre today!]