Every once in a while there are games that I run across in the iTunes store that I just have to review – even if I have to, due in many cases to a lack of patience , purchase it myself instead of waiting on a developer to marketing company to provide me with a promo code.

Such is the case when it came to TileStorm.  Due to other puzzle games that I have recently reviewed, the Genius feature on my iPhone recommended  TileStorm and I am glad it did.

With over a hundred levels, TileStorm by Andrew Cakebread (it is amazing that a game of this quality was released by an individual instead of one of the top iPhone developers…) is at its heart a sliding tile type puzzle game with a twist.  You see, as you progress in the game, you encounter not only the need to reuse some of the tiles but encounter tiles with special properties such as them being stuck to another tile (requiring you to remove two at a time) or other special features such as jumping from one tile to another.   If I could make one suggestion on the game it would be the ability to pan, zoom, and rotate the puzzles so that you could get a better perspective on them.

The 3D graphics are really amazing to the point that it makes it into my “eye candy” game category.  You have to complete all the games in one of the four worlds before you can advance to the next.  While the graphics in the first level were kinda basic, the screenshots I have seen of the three worlds are absolutely amazing.  Here are a list of some of the game’s other features:

- 100 challenging maps of generally increasing difficulty..
- 4 beautiful themes including Industrial, Egypt, Medieval and Jungle
- 5 great tunes – classic game tracks for each theme and the menus
- Intuitive and responsive controls
- Fast fully 3D graphics engine; TileStorm looks great on any iPod or iPhone, but runs fantastically well on a 3gs
- Extremely fast launch time
- Automatic game save on exit
- Full player statistics stored under options menu including combined paying time and number of screen presses
- Individual level times stored.. go back any time and try to beat your fastest time
- Factory reset option available
- Automatic ’screen flip’ for inverted use
- Fully functional audio mute; listen to your own music whilst playing TileStorm
- TileStorm can be downloaded straight to your phone over a 3G or Edge connection

If you would like to see a video of the game in action, showcasing levels from all four of the worlds,  check it out here.  Afterwards I am sure that you, like me, will rush over to the iTunes store and purchase it for yourself.  For $1.99 you will receive hours and hours of puzzle solving pleasure. One of the best features of the game is that, if you get stuck, the developer promises to help you get past that level so that you can progress in the game.  This is the first puzzle game that I have played that has come with that kinda offer.  So many times in the past I have gotten stuck for hours on a certain puzzle and ended up just putting the game down, thereby wasting the rest of the levels.