Perchang is a physics-based puzzle game from a new indie development shop that goes by the same name. Perchang describes its game as Lemmings mixed with Marble Madness, which is apt if you’re old enough to remember those games, but that description doesn’t do Perchang justice.
The challenge of Perchang lies in its puzzles, not its controls, which makes it easy to get started, but hard to master. Each of the 60 levels require you to guide tiny balls into a goal using fans, magnets, flippers, portals, and other contraptions. To further complicate things, you’re racing against the clock to get enough of the relentless stream of balls into the goal before time runs out.
The gizmos you use to guide the balls in Perchang are controlled by two on-screen touch points – one red, the other blue. The colors correspond to the items you are controlling on the screen. Touching the colored contraptions on the screen toggles their color, which changes the touch point that controls them. It’s an interesting touch that adds extra depth and strategy to each level by giving you an additional way to approach the puzzles.
The visuals in Perchang are stunning. Each level features beautifully-rendered 3D contraptions. Only the interactive items are colored to correspond to the colors of the controls. The spare use of color is striking and adds atmosphere and personality to Perchang, while also helping players focus on each level’s goal. There are so many variables that affect each puzzle, it’s easy to get lost in the harder ones for long periods of time testing different strategies, which is precisely why Perchang is so much fun.
Perchang is Universal and available on the App Store for $1.99.
