I am a big fan of puzzles and I’m happy that there are so many to check out in the App Store. While some dare to solve them to make sure that their brain juices keep moving, there are many who spend their relaxation time filling the blank spaces. But most of the games are designed at an average level and therefore if you’re able to use some common sense and a small portion of your brain cells, you can go through. However, today we have such a puzzle in our court room that’s not average at all. Forget about the difficulty level or the intellect that it requires, the introduction part is itself a bit scary. Let’s see what the package actually is.

I am talking about the latest iOS app called dispair that has been developed by Siegfried Schulz-Giese. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and requires iOS 6.0 or any later version of the OS. The app has also been optimized for iPhone 5.

Going with the name of the app, your hopes will receive a setback when you first encounter the gameplay. It’s very much complex and will leave you to guesses. There are some letters placed in different coloured boxes and that’s something that you can still cope with. But dispair is a combination of dis meaning distance and pair meaning neighbourhood and there is not a proper definition of these terms given in the game. There is a help section but it is partly helpful only and the rest you have to figure out yourself.

The central idea of the gameplay is to find out the correct pattern of how the letters are placed in different coloured boxes. There is a row on the top where some letters are missing and you have to find them. Then there is a grid of letters below it and you have to rearrange them and find the missing letters. But the main essence of the game is that you have to find the letters with minimum number of moves. The lesser moves you use, the more you score.

There are many levels of gameplay and the higher you go, the more difficult it becomes for you to clear. There are many versions of the app as well. There is a dispair simu version which is available for free and offers 4 levels for play and simulation. Then comes the dispair light version which is available for $0.99 and offers up to 6 levels for play and up to 8 levels for simulation. The full version comes at $2.99.

The graphics of this app could have been better and they should be because they make the game look more difficult and a little bit boring as well. But once you get the basics of this game right, there’s no backing out for you. You’ll love to clear all the levels and I must say that this game is for serious puzzlers out there.

Pros: original gameplay; many levels to complete; free version also available; uncommon and difficult puzzle.

Cons: the gameplay is itself a bit of puzzle and takes time to understand.

Worth Having Application –  Download the App