These Clarence Day , keeping up with games can be a full - time job . So how do you separate the signaling from the noise , the wheat from the chaff , the Temple Runs from the Temple Jumps ? Allow us to help by regularly take a biz   You Should Play .

The opening move panorama ofTengamitakes post in a tatami elbow room , a traditional Nipponese style consisting of matted floors . hydrant ‘ New Game , ’ and the photographic camera zooms in , onto a table that holds a thick book . Your first project is to open this book , because the entire game takes place inside this ornate pour down - up Good Book .

Tengami is an risky venture inside a stunning , active pa - up book .

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Tengami is one of the most visually stunning games I ’ve ever witness , and its put - back access to puzzles ensures you have prison term to full take in the game ’s rich air . If you have eyes , you owe it to yourself to take a look at Tengami — here ’s why :

Visually innovational : There are plenty of mobile games these twenty-four hour period with top - notch graphics , but Tengami is in a conference of its own . Not only are Tengami ’s graphics crisp , clear , and well - rendered , but the artwork itself is beautiful and unique . You spiel as a two - dimensional samurai research a watercolor , washi - newspaper cosmos conventionalize as an intricate bulge out - up book — with puzzle that look on manipulating these tonic - ups ( as well as your care to point ) . Scenes feature relaxing , blended ( but deep ) colors , small heart rate of spark to indicate places and things of interest group , and smooth side - scroll drive .

Gameplay is simple , and mostly involves slither your finger across the screen to open up and close pop - ups and double - tapping to move your fiber . The room the pop - up pages have been trace and animated are breathtaking — there were several times during my shimmer - though that I stopped mid - pop - up just to wonder at how elaborated the vivification was .

tengami book

It ’s not just the artwork that impresses . It ’s also how the pop - ups are animise .

The way daddy - ups workplace in this plot are similar to the perspective shifts inMonument Valley . For example , purloin your finger across a synagogue might fold the temple into itself to let on the temple ’s interior , or purloin your finger across a construction might change over the linear perspective from the east side to the south side .

Atmosphere is on point : Tengami is based on traditional Nipponese culture and aesthetic , and the game does a very good job of cultivating an authentic atm ( while still feeling like a game , and not history moral ) . The secret plan has a racy original soundtrack ( available to pour onBandcamp ) that features Nipponese instruments like the koto . Tengami is true more of an interactive level than a plot — the puzzles are all easy to medium - level difficulty — and so the atmosphere , soundtrack , and sound burden are an important part of pass water you find lost in this world .

tengami popup

Tengami uses kanji numerals in some puzzles .

One affair I feel interesting was the exercise of Japanese numerals in the puzzle . I ’m not sure if this would make the puzzles harder or easier for someone who has never visualise kanji numbers ( in one puzzle you just need to recognise the symbols ; in another you ’re asked to add together up a count ) , but I appreciated that the developer went with kanji and not random symbols or Roman Catholic numerals .

Short and gratifying : I’m a millennian — I download too many nomadic games and fail to finish playing them because the plotlines are tiresomely drawn out . But I finished Tengami in just over an hour , even though gameplay feel far ( perhapstoofar ) from rush . In a Earth where democratic mobile game are typically eternal , finite games like Tengami andMonument Valleyare a satisfying hiatus . Tengami has three chapters , like the three verses of a haiku , which piddle for a poetic wrapper - up .

tengami numbers

That said , I think Tengami is a little too light to apologize its $ 5 price tag . I recommend wait until it goes on sales agreement ( I ’ve reckon it on sale for $ 1 in the past ) before you snag this rubric .

Developer : NyamyamPlatform : iOS(Universal)Price:$5