Juan Tamad is a logic puzzle game that aims to tell the story of the eponymous “hero” in the process (in Tagalog or English). It’s a Universal app, optimized for iPhone/iPod touch (including iPhone 5) and iPad. The game is free and comes with 24 puzzles and more puzzles can be unlocked via in-app purchase.
The first thing you’ll notice is that Juan Tamad doesn’t look or sound like most of the free games available in the App Store. The graphics, music, and sound in the game are all very high quality, more like what you’d expect from a paid app. You can tell that the developers spent time and effort to make the game look and sound professional. The visual style is composed of charming cardboard cutout puppets accented by ethnic pattens and watercolor illustrations.
You’re presented with pieces of a bridge at the beginning of each puzzle and tasked with putting them together to help Juan Tamad reach his goal. You get extra points for completing the puzzles faster. The controls are pretty intuitive, you can flip, rotate, and drag the bridge pieces into place by tapping and dragging them around. By successfully completing each stage you help Juan Tamad be a little less lazy and move on to the next task. The difficulty ramps up nicely, with the later puzzles becoming quite challenging.
There have already been several updates since v1.0 arrived early October, adding features like iPhone/iPod touch support and additional puzzles. It would be great if the developers add even more variety to the puzzles and actually tell more of Juan Tamad’s story as you solve them. Overall, it’s a great example of what local developers are capable of and I’m excited to see what other apps and games the folks at TOOCH have in store.
Get Juan Tamad from the iTunes Store.
