There are many dots games, but this is the best and the most imitated, and the most challenging. There is a reason why it has a cult-following -- once you start playing you will understand why.
This is a simple colourful puzzle game, clean and sleek, customisable and fun. You will find yourself totally addicted to it. The game is easy to play, without locked levels to pass. What you have to achieve is to get a high score, get to 500+, which is something very difficult. That requires focus, strategy and also a bit of luck and knowing how the system works to undermine it a bit in your favour. Getting 100 or 150 points might be relatively easy, but getting 200+ is far from easy and I am stuck in the 300+ benchmark right now in the Moves Mode and about 200+ in the Timed Mode, and, honestly, it is difficult!
What do you have to do? Connect dots of the same colour and score high. The aim of the game is to make as many squares as possible, as one square gets you 10 points not 4, and squares beget more squares, which start to appear more often the more you make.
There are four playing modes. The Timed Mode (60 seconds) which is the
most difficult; the Moves Mode (30 moves to finish, that is the one I recommend to learn and find your way
without the pressure of time); the Endless Mode (which you have to pay for) and the Blind Competition with other gamers. To help you with the scoring. you are given three tools to improve your changes. They are called runners-up. One is the time-stop (the clock stops counting for 5 seconds), the shrinkers (you press one and it eliminates the dot you press from the screen) and the expanders (it eliminates all the dots of the same colour from the screen).
The game is free but not cheap, if you know what I mean. It is pleasing to the eye, customisable, scores are kept safe for next time you play, and your best score on each mode is recorded without you having to do anything. So, there is no need to access Facebook or Google+ to save anything or play with other gamers. There are several free themes and colour schemes. I tend to use the purple one a lot, and the original white. The other ones are not as good to me.
You get extra bonus points for playing certain number of matches, at certain times of the day, with certain themes, for benchmark points, for using the runners ups, for number of dots eliminated by one move and so on. Each time you get one of those bonus it will show at the end of your match by small red characters with a description.
The game gives you plenty of points that you can exchange for any of the runners up, if you want, for free, without the need of purchasing anything.
The best way to score high is to make as many squares as you can. It sound easy but it is not. Sometimes the initial dots panel is set in a way that makes difficult to make any square at all, no matter how good you are. You cannot do anything about it. But you can restart the game and start it up again with a new dots panel. I do that until I see I have some workable changes to start with and I am not doomed from the start.
I have played the game in my tablet and phone, and for whatever reason I find playing with the pone is easier, probably because there is a bigger distance between the eyes and the screen and one can spot shapes better.
EXTRA KUDOS
+ I find the game easy to find on buses, planes and in moments when you don't have much time. Lunch break or bus commuting for example.
+ It occupies little memory and runs smoothly.
+ It saves your scoring and piles up on it automatically.
+ Unisex game.
+ All ages game.
+ Colour blind mode.
+ Play matches with other players without the need of registration or interacting directly with them.
+ Free exchange of points for runner-up dots.
+ No annoying ads or promotional interruptions.
TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR (MY) SCORING
> Start with the Moves Mode to practise your focus and strategy without the pressure of time.
> Use your shrinkers and expanders wisely. Unless you are getting a high score and want to improve it, you are wasting them.
> Set the theme that best suits your sight and you feel most
comfortable with. I personally found the original and the purple the
ones that work best for me. I cannot resist purple anything
.> Restart the game if you see that the initial dots panel is setting you for a low scoring.
> Avoid the temptation of linking many dots in a long line. By making a square and linking four dots you are getting 10 points, which is more of what you get with long lines most of the time.
> Focus, focus, focus. Patience, Patience, Patience.
> Don't rush. I have seem that a mechanical impulse of my fingers has just destroyed a square that I saw a millisecond after my fingers had touched the screen.
> If you are playing the Time Mode and need a few seconds, instead of using your time-pause runner up, press the time/moves on the left top of the screen and the game is suspended automatically. Then, you can press the green button and return to the game as you left it, or you can restart by pressing the red button.
> The use of shrinkers and expanders is very useful, but it is worthless
if you are scoring low and waste them in this occasion. Use them when
you are scoring high to score higher and get more squares! The shrinkers
are specially convenient as they are very cheap to exchange for your gathered
points.
DOWNSIDES
# Initial explanation about what the function of shrinkers and expanders is missing from the game unless you press on them and you see what the text says. The game starts with a simple exemplification of how the game works, why not doing the same with the runners up?
# You cannot adjust the sizing of the dots to your liking.
# If you want to change the colour palette and customise it, you have to pay for it.
# You can buy double scoring dots. This being the case, any gamer who is using those has way more chances of scoring high that you will ever have even if you have the same skills and create the same number of squares. Unfair!
I tend to download heaps of free games and they have a very short life in my gadgets for several reasons. Basically they don't give me what I am looking for. Dots is difficult but gives me what I am looking for. It is here to stay!
