Azkend HD

Version 1.10
Compatible: iPad 3.2
Price: $5 HD

I find it fitting for my first review to be on the first game I bought after purchasing my shiny new iPad. What lead me to this game I can’t remember, out of all the games of the entire App Store I picked this one. I think I was looking for Hexic or something along those lines and instead found Azkend. I got the Lite version and systematically decided that I needed the full paid version for some naive reason that I can somewhat understand.

Azkend is an action puzzle game that consists of connecting hexagons with matching symbols to make long strings so you can clear the entire board. Its a simple, addictive zen game with beautiful visuals that is light on the hectic side of things for the sake of a calm, relaxing experience. And that’s what I got when I started off with the Adventure mode. If that’s all it was I would be quite content but the problem starts as you casually delve deeper into the game.

The first few levels grant you power ups, when you chain four or more of these power up symbols it has a certain effect that clears more of the screen. Progressing further into the game gives you ridiculous amounts of power ups that when you chain them together causes the screen to jump about in a seemingly random pattern. Once I started doing these power ups I felt like I lost control of the game and that’s one of the worst things that can happen.

It’s not just a game of connect the dots however. There are small pointless sequences where you have to point out where a small blurb belongs in a grand painting. It doesn’t appear to penalize for multiple tries so I never failed when I pointed everywhere as fast as possible. It’s a meaningless distraction that’s barely worth mentioning but gives me an opportunity to lead into the visuals. Clearly the best part of this game are the gorgeous visuals. They don’t do much but since it was my iPad first I was chuffed at how good they looked on my new display.

Bottom line is if you’re looking for a game on your iPad (there’s an iPod version as well) where you can just sit back and zone out and don’t mind paying out a fiver for, go for it. I haven’t found many games on the App Store quite like it unless you find Angry Birds to be therapeutic (then what the Hell’s wrong with you?) I’d recommend it to big spenders but to people on a budget, there’s far better for much cheaper.

Welcome!

Allow me to make my introduction. I am Reiku and this is the Appstraction Blog. Hopefully you've scrolled from far and wide to get to this post and it is here where I'll lay the synopsis of these pages. I'm a great fan of tech, most specifically Apple tech. I love nothing more than expanding my artistic horizons with my Mac setup. I'm an App Store addict and find myself falling victim to sales, new items, highly recommended apps as well as Genius recommended apps. Because of this I have a modest amount of experience with the App Store and want to make the most of it by making recommendations and sharing my thoughts.

I will review a great number of Apps of varying categories and popularity on a biweekly basis (Tuesdays and Fridays.) On top of that I'll write general articles based on the nature of App releases, my tech set up, my wish list, my Home Screen (Apps I use on a regular basis) and my Trash Heap (Apps to avoid like the plague that I had the great misfortune to purchase and waste bandwidth on.)

For the first little while I'll start with iPad and iPhone/iPod Apps before moving onto the Mac App Store section, though I confess I don't know how much attention I could give it in comparison. If you have an App you want me to review, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or preferably e-mail me. 

Happy Reading