Yellow Monkey Studios, the team that brought us the amazing Huebrix, is back with a new game for iOS devices. Socioball is an elegant puzzle game with a unique social element.
Socioball utilizes isometric tile grids for its levels. The aim of each level is to guide the ball from the start tile to the goal tile. You have no direct control over the ball and essentially complete its path by making use of different kinds of tiles. These tiles range from spring tiles to teleport tiles and more. Once you are satisfied with your path, tapping the arrow tile initiates movement and you either see the ball reach the goal or fail. Socioball involves a lot of trial and error depending on your skill level. It comes packed with 60 puzzle levels. The social aspect of the game is a level editor that allows you to share levels with other players. The level information is stored inside an image that is tweeted and the game can pull level data from Socioball images found on Twitter. I quite liked this implementation for community created levels.
Given the studio’s track record, Socioball has great visuals for the most part and the music adds that layer of elegance to an already well designed game. I did notice some elements in puzzles not having smooth curves on the iPad Air 2. Hopefully this is fixed in an update.
Socioball is a game any fan of puzzle games should play. Some of the levels do feel a bit repepetitive at first, but they get good soon after. I’m glad Yellow Monkey Studios didn’t go the free to play route and actually charge money for this game. Socioball is available on the App Store as a universal game for just $2.99.