INKS‪.‬ 4+

State of Play comes up with some real unique and beautiful games. Relaxing but challenging at the same time. Meditative in a way, if I can use that. I’ve had KAMI for years and every time I upgrade phones and the game resets, I’m learning it again (though not all over again). Just found out about this game, Inks, and it fits the same bill. Very pretty. Nonjudgmental (i.e. no timer, *I* set the pace; you can reset and try again). I just scanned a long review where someone thought this was boring. (People write movie reviews like that, too. They see a picture about real life and then bash it when it’s not like Star Wars.) Anyway if you’re looking for the game equivalent of “get it done or you’re dead” then, yeah, it is “boring.” But there are tons of games out there that will make you sweat. I don’t need that or I don’t always need that. Sometimes I just need to **be**, and this is a great game for that. I appreciate it for the game it is. Thanks for designing it.

First off, I love that this comes at a reasonable price, with zero ads and no content locked behind microtransactions (aside from consumables, iirc). That right there is 5-star worthy these days… Otherwise, it’s absolutely gorgeous, aesthetically plays well to the strengths of a digital medium, and is easy to pick up wherever, whenever; it’s also sufficiently tricky, while being flexible towards more relaxed styles of play. I’m docking one star, however, for two shortcomings in particular: 1.) each table is treated as an isolated puzzle, which is fine, but given there’s no way to seamlessly continue playing (painting?) once a table is “completed”, and no way to progress to the next puzzle without backing out into a menu first, the flow is just… all wrong, not at all what one would want for a pinball game. 2.) There's zero customization available, leaving you with the same cardboard brown + primary colors throughout the game, which gets repetitive and uninspiring far too quickly for a game that sells itself on its artistic merit. If those two issues were fixed, this would be an easy 5 stars. Nevertheless, it’s certainly still an easy recommendation.

This game is beautifully designed, and incredibly colorful and enjoyable! It's hard to find a digital pinball game that is actually worth playing over a real pinball machine, but this app offers a unique twist with splashes of color and simple but addictive "power-ups" that make the game feel fresh and enticing with each new level unlocked. Though not an incredibly complex game in concept or mechanics, the pinball boards do get more challenging and unique as one plays through the levels and the music and colors are meditative and relaxing!

At the time of writing this review, this is a free app of the week - so it's definitely worth a try! It also somehow feels like the perfect Fall game - simple, relaxing, and colorful - so I applaud Apple on their choice for this September week for free game app of the week! 👏🏻👏🏻