Puzzles aren’t only a great way to get a bit of exercise for your brain, but they’re also incredibly flexible when it comes to different styles and ways of solving them. Tondo Jigsaw, developed by Marko Umicevic, is an incredibly unique puzzle game for iPhone and iPad that adds a big twist to mainstream jigsaw puzzles.
Tondo Jigsaw definitely isn’t a conventional puzzle game. Instead of rectangular or square boards, puzzles are arranged in a circle. Personally I’ve never encountered another game like this, so I was intrigued right off the bat.
When you first play Tondo Jigsaw you’ll be taken through a brief interactive tutorial where you’ll learn about the basic controls of the game. This includes figuring out how to move puzzle pieces around the board.
Controls definitely aren’t conventional, and it’ll take new players a bit of time to get used to how pieces move around on the screen.
Tondo Jigsaw offers a plethora of puzzles for players to solve, and they’re nicely organized by theme on the main screen. From wildlife to comic characters, there’s definitely a nice variety of puzzles to enjoy.
You can even import your own photos from your device’s camera roll, which will turn it into a fun puzzle to solve.
As I mentioned before, controls are a bit tricky to get used to. Tapping and holding your finger down on the screen lets you rotate the puzzle board. Quickly tapping on a puzzle piece will swap it out with a piece two spots over. If you swipe your finger towards a piece that’s across from the one you tapped, the pieces will switch.
It’s much easier to learn how to play by doing rather than reading, but I do want to say that Tondo Jigsaw certainly isn’t impossible to figure out. It just takes time to get used to a new puzzle concept. Players can also use buttons at the bottom of the puzzle screen to change the background wallpaper, view the solved puzzle image, and get hints if they’re stuck.
When it comes to the price of free, it looks like Tondo Jigsaw is a game that players can enjoy without spending money on in-app purchases. There are ads that popup occasionally, but they’re anything but intrusive.
Overall, Tondo Jigsaw is a unique and challenging puzzle game for iPhone and iPad that takes a bit of time to learn, but it’s certainly not impossible to play. Plus, the fact that you can import your own images into the game and create custom puzzles is definitely a fun feature.
Tondo Jigsaw requires iOS 7.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
A small fee was paid by the developer for publication of this review