Aurora Feint is a hard game to describe. Developed by Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron, this rpg disguised as a simple slide and swap puzzle is taking the iTune app store by storm. The main mining game has characters sliding and swapping block positions in order to align 3 or more blocks of the same type. I know, I know, sounds like Bejewled right? Wrong! While the basic game mechanics and immediate objectives may be similar to other swap-n-pop games, Aurora Feint is something different. Unlike other puzzle games, Aurora Feint has a tremendous amount of depth, strategy and ambition.

When Aurora Feint is first started, you are directed through a short character creation process. Once complete it’s off to the main map where players can choose between 4 major areas. The Mine, Store, Smith and Tower. The Store allows you to spend your available crystals on blueprints, books and scrolls which are used at the Tower or Smith to learn new skills. The fourth area, The Mine, is where most of the puzzle grinding occurs.

In the Mine six columns of blocks slowly rise form the bottom of your screen threatening to end your session by reaching the top of the screen. Each block belongs to one of five essence types. To remove blocks players slide them along their row attempting to position three or more blocks of the same essence in a horizontal or vertical row. When you make a group, the blocks are removed and space is opened up. While blocks can only move horizontally, it’s important to note that in Aurora Feint, horizontal is a relative term. Tilting the iPhone or iPod touch will cause the blocks to tilts thus turning rows into columns and columns into rows. This titling mechanic adds an incredible amount of depth and strategy to an already fun game.

As you puzzle grind in the Mine, your character will level up. Leveling allows you to place points in various skill trees and unlocks blueprints, books and scrolls. All of these activities serve to unlock new skills or abilities. The process by which this is done is not as straight forward as the rest of the game. In most cases you will buy a blueprint or book and then go to the Smith or Tower to build it. Building the blueprint or book involves solving some type of puzzle. Typically, this will be a “Mine” puzzle where you have to clear a certain number of essence types in a specific amount of time or an element puzzle where you must clear the board in specific number of moves. Once you figure out how it works you’ll be driven to play more and more.

Acoording to the developers (and the Apple Store tags) Aurora Feint is hoping to become a mobile MMO. In future releases players will be able to join up with their friends and form a virtual puzzle party. While a “puzzle party” may not sound cool to you, in the world of Aurora Feint it sounds like a winner to me. Future updates also promise to enhance, release or otherwise make available more skills and tools.

Several days ago there was a bit of controversy surrounding Aurora Feint. It seems that the game sends information from your contact list when the “update my friends” feature is used. Some people feel this is a privacy concern while others see it as a necessary part of the multiplayer engine. The community and developers have been very open about the issue so I will direct you to their forums for further information. Aurora Feint Forums

Note: Aurora Feint has been removed from the iTunes store. It is unclear what prompted the removal of the game and no one is saying at the moment if it will be back.

Update: Aurora Feint is back. Version 1.0.01 is available for update and fixes the security issues, crash bugs and adds a some new features. Read more about it here.

By: Aaron Robbins