4 In A 3D Row Review

With iPhone and Android games dominating the portable gaming market at the moment, it forces indie developers into a grudge match of supreme proportions in which games will become the next big hit. Developer NeonFive is giving it a shot with their modern take the never ageing classic ‘4 in a 3D Row’.

4 in a 3D Row boasts an unusual visual style that will have your eyes seduced by its initial beauty. The game takes the retro 4 in a row formula and takes it up a notch or two with an all new cube grid interface.

It is a simple, yet attractive design with a shining gleam of neon green focused colour palette which I will admit had me saying “wow” at first sight. I am a sucker for futuristic looking interfaces especially those that give you a ‘Tron’ vibe. NeonFive’s 4 in a 3D Row presents a new aspect to the competitive coin dropping past time in which the grid is given multiple sides and layers to it so that a player can take an alternate route to victory. The game’s visuals allow for a simple understanding of this layout and the learning curve to getting used to the new layout is easy to catch on with. Your eyes won’t be intimidated by the proclaimed 3D feature either as it basically is just stating that the game is played on a cube grid as I mentioned.

4 in a Row 3D is also very easy to interact with too, even on an iPhone or iPad. To place a token on the grid, the player just simply taps the screen and then their coloured piece is placed. It is a simple as that. Not only that but because the grid is multi layered, it will also require the player to turn the cube and place more pieces on different parts. This is taken care of by just pressing your finger down on the screen and dragging your finger in whatever direction you would like the cube to turn. Easy, no?

The game sports two modes for players to have a go with which consist of single player AI battles or provoking multiplayer contests. If you are simply looking for a quick 1 player match against the games CPU then you can with a selection of different difficulty modes. I found a problem with the AI though especially on easy in which the sneaky CPU will curve in difficulty from time to time. Sometimes it will go on an all-out onslaught to make sure you are defeated while other times it will just place randomly scattered pieces on the board while you make a 4 in a row without much effort. This makes the AI a little unpredictable and not in a fun way. While initially trying to get used to the game, the easy mode AI would destroy me over and over again until suddenly it just became a blind drunk and started playing completely recklessly.

This can be put to one side though with the ability to play with actually intelligent human opponents. The multiplayer is a great addition to the overall package and is supported with a lag free experience that will have you determined to conquer the leaderboards for weeks to come. While the game does require registering to its servers, the process is effortless and doesn’t want you to give away your email address either which makes a great change from being spammed by the general streams of emails from acts of registration.

4 in a 3D Row is available now on the ITunes store.

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