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Handholding Has Its Logic: 10Tons’s Joining Hands

Handholding Has Its Logic: Win Joining Hands From 10Tons

CONTEST CLOSED Winner was notifed privately by email Tweet

Developer: 10Tons
Genre: Logic Game, Puzzle Game, Casual Game, Educational, Family
Platform: Universal
Price: $2.99
SAHGeekMom Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pump gives it: 4.25 Pump’s Up
Recommended Age: 6+

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The Whispering Woods are home to the Peablins, stars of the new logic puzzle, Joining Hands, by 10tons of Azkend and Grim Joggers fame, and they need your help to make them happy.

Making the cute Peablins content is simple; as the game title suggests it’s all about holding hands.

The object is to place unhappy Peablins, how many and what kind are based on the level’s difficulty, onto a game grid, adjacent to others in order to lock hands.

Each character has a set number of hands, you need to connect them all to make them smile and progress to the next level.

The graphics are rich on both the iPhone’s retina display and the big screen (iPad), and the game mechanics are simple and fluid.

Just drag and drop Peablins where you think they ought to go. Hands will connect to available hands automatically. You can make one chain or several smaller chains on the game board, as long as you make everyone happy.

There are six tutorial levels and another five worlds with 12 levels each and the promise of more to come. Successful completion of one unlocks the next.

There are several varieties of Peablins, each with it’s own rules: some can join hands in any direction, others are fixed, and some are just plain hard to please. There are also obstacles, score boosters and power-ups.

Since several gamers on the toucharcade.com forums reported both concern that the game may be too complex (it’s actually quite simple, but it’s hard to tell from the iTunes description) and general confusion over how it all works, 10Tons made this gameplay video to help clarity:

Each time a new element comes into play an instruction screen tells you its function, limitation or strategic use, so the learning curve is not very steep.

Joining Hands is distinct in that is really is a pure logic game. It takes trial and error and patience too. But, it’s a challenge and on the App Store, bursting at the seems with physics, matching and action puzzlers, this is a novel treat.

The game’s fairytale like setting gives it kid-appeal and young gamers may be more familiar with the premise as many board games aimed at children offer similar, but simplified puzzles.

Pump’s Point: I really like this one for when I’m clamed down. It’s like Zoologic, but with monsters and ghosts and it gets really hard. I think kids will love the ghosts and fat guys and parents will like making everyone smarter.

While the characters and some levels are kid-friendly, this game is not child’s play. The difficulty increases rapidly and while you won’t be pulling out your hair in frustration, the game does require a fair amount of mental gymnastics.

There are no leaderboards or achievements as yet, nor any gaming network integration, and some users feel the pricing point, $2.99, is a bit high for this type of game. It is, however, universal and in line with 10Tons other games.

The gameplay is virtually flawless and the concept is fresh and habit forming. New levels from easy to brain busting are in the works. Joining Hands is sure to please any clever puzzle-lovers. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Still not sure? Well here’s your chance to try it for free. I have one promo code. You can win it by either tweeting this review or leaving a relevant comment. You can enter once by each method.

Contest Closes: Saturday, June 11, 6:00PDT. Good luck!