Flow Free: Shapes in IOS

App Store Editors’ Notes

New content in the series, not sure if it works.

I have been playing the flow free series of games for a decade now. OG, bridges, and hexes are great. Warps can be a slog, but still good. Shapes is ambitious and trippy. The primary game mechanic is smooth and intuitive as in the others. The additional pack/ad free purchase is great value as always. But everything else is weird. The first weekly pack called “bricks” was hard on the eyes and not intuitive to complete. The 3D packs in the extreme category have links that are hidden by other ones e.g. the skyscraper pack. The mountain pack is very difficult to get your line going where you want it. Jumbo cubes look squashed or stretched depending on layout of the links. And the worst part of the game is the button layout. They eliminated the level navigation buttons, and put the hint button in their place. They also moved the reset level button to the corner where the hint button is in all the other games. This alone knocked a star off. You have four other games laid out in one specific way. Why would you change that for the fifth? In summary. I will finish all the packs eventually. But will I have a 3000 day daily streak like I do in the original, or do the weekly’s? I doubt it. I would’ve preferred additional packs to be released for the other games than getting this one. They were ambitious. Props for the effort. But after several hundred levels, my biggest takeaway is that my eyes hurt. Cheers.

phenomenal

i’ve got to be honest, i am absolutely enamored with this game. i’ve been playing this game for so many years. started off when i was in summer camp probably like 10 years old…i’m now in college and i’ve been playing this game religiously. i finished the game officially in 2017 on a trip to boston and even still i’ve continued to play this game everyday. i was really excited when the original game added daily and weekly puzzles bc i just craved something new. honestly, im not the biggest fan of the hexes, warped, or the bridges so i haven’t gotten those games and was really looking forward to a few new puzzles and just a few days ago, i got a notification that a new game was released of shapes… i am HOOKED!!! i am honestly so impressed bc i feel like i’ve been training for this game since i started playing it. i do wish that i didn’t have to pay for the full version or have any ads but i guess that’s just the new norm these days but i will pay bc i do not want to be disturbed while i’m playing. i love flow and i now am loving flow shapes!

Great game, great company

The game is very much like the previous Flow Free games, except the levels are irregular shapes, sometimes curved and sometimes 3D. While it’s very similar to the previous games, the new shapes (especially the 3D ones) add a certain complexity to it, making it different enough that it’s not just a “more of the same”. One thing which was unfortunate, and led to a lot of negative reviews (my original review included) was that the original user interface was different from the previous games, resulting in people using hints instead of hitting the reset button. The company changed the interface in a recent update, making it match the previous games, so that is no longer an issue. In light of that, I am changing my review from 3 stars to 5 stars. The fact that the company listened to its customers and changed the interface says a lot about them. Too few companies listen to their customers nowadays.

Great game

I find this game challenging and relaxing. I was playing Flow Free when they introduced Flow Free: Shapes. I love this new version! It’s clever, has a great variety of puzzles with overpasses, knots, tesseracts, and you can play at your own pace or follow the daily schedule. It has lots of activities built in and the free play has all kinds of clever puzzles. In daily play, they sometimes give you a message within the puzzles—just love that! You can also change the color schemes. I bought the ad free, so there are no other interruptions unless I want a free hint (you can also reasonably buy hint packages). I had a triple digit streak in Flow Free, and am approaching that in Shapes. The best part of both these games is that there are NO timers! Highly recommend these games if you want to enjoy a good challenge at your own pace. To the developers: thanks for the hours of fun with your games! Looking forward to more 🙌

Relaxing and pretty

The other flow free apps got me through Covid lockdown. Thanks very much! I’ve only played today’s Daily challenges and a few of the free plays, but it’s clear these new puzzles are a new take on the other formats, and deserve 5 stars. Pretty, not too challenging, and they help me into a zen trance. My only recommendations are that, once completed, the grid outline fades to nothing, and that you don’t immediately block the view of the completed puzzle. Let me admire your and my handiwork and tap somewhere to advance to the next puzzle when I’m ready. Thanks again! Without you I’d have resorted to home crafts or baking. The world is better off without those! Checking in to add a 6th star one day after the above review. Today’s daily challenge shapes are incredibly cool to look at and fun to navigate. Thanks again!

I paid to remove ads, why aren’t they gone?

I think $5 is a very reasonable price to permanently remove in-game ads, and for the number of puzzles included in this game I was happy to pay that fee. I much prefer this flat fee model to the subscription services many apps seem to be moving towards - I want to buy a thing once and own it. What I don’t like, however, is that the ads aren’t all gone with my purchase! The third-party banner and full-screen ads are removed, but I still get pop-ups from the game itself asking me to buy new color packs! I paid for this game to not have ads, and I expect there to be none. The gameplay itself is super fun, a welcome expansion to the classic flow free formula. I think there was an oversight in what “ad-free” really means, though - I would like to see the intention of “ad-free” honored with a future app update to remove all first-party in-game advertisements with the paid upgrade.

It’s good, except…

It’s fun to have a new flow free game. I’m just getting started and not sure if I’ll keep it, honestly. I agree with the others that the reset button needs to be moved back to the middle! Please keep all of the buttons the same as previous flow free games! You have a loyal fan base who have been playing for years. Please consider the feedback and make that change. I’ve played Flow Free for years and even after reading the reviews for this game that the buttons were moved, I still found myself clicking the same place to reset. It’s very frustrating! It’s too bad to have something as simple as keeping the buttons in the same orientation as the reason that people consider deleting the game.