Back when I was a Palm (I was a staunch supporter of Palm OS devices ever since the original Palm Pilot was marketed) I was a huge fan of a game called Picture Logic.  The premise behind the game was to use numbers provided on two sides of a grid to shade in blocks on that grid and ultimately solve the puzzle.  The end result was a rather crud image.  PathPix takes the whole concept of creating images from numbers to an entirely new level.

The concept is easy but the puzzles, even in the “basic” program (there is also a free lite version to get your feet wet, and Pro version for those less faint of heart) gets complex enough that they require more and more concentration and effort in order to solve the puzzle.

The grid containing the puzzle is sprinkled with pairs of numbers.  In order to complete the image and solve the puzzle you have to create a path between a set of identical numbers with the total number of squares in the path equaling the number pair you are working with.  For example, if you were trying to connect a pair of eights you would start with one of them and draw a line (very few of which are straight) between the two with six blank squares in the middle.  The lines that are created by this process are in various colors so the resulting picture is also in color.

Once the puzzle is complete the image might still be difficult to figure out until the view zooms back, blends the like colored lines together,  and reveals the color image along with a quote that in some way refers to the image.

Puzzle difficulty is not just affected by the size of the puzzle but also by the placement as well as the length of the lines. The longer the line is the more options there are to connect the two ends. With very few of the lines being straight ones, it doesn’t take long before the difficulty begins to get noticeably harder.  You also have the red lines that you cannot cross.   While the PC version provides help in revealing errors that you have made, the iPhone version offers no help beyond telling you how to play the game and how to zoom in or out and pan around while working on the puzzle.  As far as the puzzle size goes, the easy ones are in the 12×12 range and the more advanced ones are easily several times that size.

There are 9 puzzles in the free Lite version. The $1.99 version contains 169 puzzles of increasing difficulty, and the $2.99 Pro version, designed only for experienced puzzle solvers, contains a whopping 300 levels that are truly more difficult. The line length in the last 20 puzzles in the PixPath Pro version contain lines that are as long as 20-25 squares in length. With that degree of difficulty it could easily take a couple of hours to solve each one.  But PathPix Pro also offers sets with short paths, puzzles in two colors, puzzle packs with a lot of white space, and so forth.  You get a lot of variety with it.

My suggestions would include some kind of button or menu option to check the validity of a partially completed puzzle (like the option in the PC version), and the addition to some pinch controls for zooming in and out.  Also, there were some times when moving around in the puzzle would start a new path or delete an existing one depending on the placement of your finger.  Perhaps the use of one finger for paths and using two fingers for moving around in the puzzle would help.

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of puzzle games but I really like this one.  I wouldn’t hesitate in giving it 4 out of 5 stars.  At the very least, you should download the free lite version and check it out.

[contributed by David Eaton]