Bonny’s Triplet review

I won’t lie; I’m highly susceptible to things of a cute nature. Cute things tend to inspire squeals from me usually only detectible by dogs and sensitive scientific equipment, and there were plenty of delighted sounds coming out of me when I fired up the uber-cute Bonny’s Triplet.

A kid-friendly version of mahjong, this simple and beautifully designed matching game requires finding 3 matching tiles instead of the usual pair. Tiles must be open either on the right or left side, but unavailable tiles are grayed out, making it much easier to spot pairs.

There are three different difficulty settings with 20 levels each. The easy levels start off very easy, making it a good fit even for fairly young children. Matches are very simple to make, as you can even collect tiles into your “hand” to free up needed tiles, but filling up all your hand slots means game over, so you do have to use a little strategic thinking if you want to succeed. But even on the hardest difficulty setting, the gameplay itself is still much simpler and easier than your average mahjong game.

The interface is easy to use and the menus are all done up in such a way as to make navigation a cinch, although I did find that the tile sizes were definitely more geared towards little fingers, which resulted in the occasional mis-tap, but certainly nothing fatal.

The one aspect I found far and away the most striking about Bonny’s Triplet is the art style. If you’re the type to cringe at Hello Kitty, you might find that it’s a trifle on the saccharine side, but I was actually quite impressed by the consistent and engaging design choices. I loved the colorful color scheme, adorable animal illustrations, and I thought the gentle background music added a nice finish to the overall experience. It definitely looks like an app for young children, but it possesses an undeniably professional presentation that adults will also appreciate.

Overall, I can’t say that it’s an especially original concept, but it’s an interesting twist on a familiar game. Although the harder levels pack a legitimate punch, it’s not geared towards grown-ups looking for a challenge, but it makes a great introduction for kids looking for something a little more strategy based than your run-of-the-mill memory game.

AppSafari Rating: 3.5/5

AppSafari review of Bonny’s Triplet was written by Tracy Yonemoto on December 15th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Games, Puzzler, Strategy. Page viewed 5295 times, 1 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.