A New Blog Type Has Arrived!
In Screen Masher, I'm going to do quick reviews of mobile games that you can get either for free or for pay, most of the time from whichever app store you choose. These will be short reads with some details in certain areas. I'll try to crank these out faster than I do my normal reviews. 
A lot can be said for simplicity in gaming, especially for mobile devices. Make things too simple and people may reject it. Add a lot of details and nuances and it becomes a hit. If Tetris is the latter and Flappy Bird is the former then Dots sits somewhere comfortably in the middle.
Dots is a minimalistic game where you connect dots of the same color. Simple. Easy. Tricky.
Timed, Moves, Endless, and Challenges are the four game modes you can spend your time in. Timed gives you one minute to gather as many dots as you can. Moves gives you a small amount of moves to gather as many. Endless, which costs $1.99, is exactly that: an infinite amount of time and power-ups to play with. This mode doesn't bank you any dots. Challenges sends a challenge request to one of your friends on either Facebook or Twitter. A friendly competition mode to see who can bank the most dots.
You can't connect diagonally and if you react too quickly you may miss your chance at a better move and there is no undo function. Connecting dots to make a square will cause all the dots of the same color to disappear. Your final score results in how many dots you bank. By banking and using those dots, you can purchase power-ups such as Time Stops, which stops the clock five seconds; Shrinkers, double-tapping a single dot will make it disappear; and Expanders, double tapping a single dot will make all dots of the same color disappear. Time Stops and Expanders can only be used once per game, so you'll have to consider whether or not its worth using one to get a few extra dots.
The game has 35 trophies and these can be shared on the two previously mentioned social networks. These can be earned by playing 40 rounds, scoring a certain amount, or using so many power-ups. Most of them are easy to earn so there's no pressure when you set your sights on unlocking one. It will take some practice to reach a score of just 300 but once you do then you pretty much have the game fully understood.
If the bright white of the game is too much to handle, included are three other themes. A dark theme reverses colors, and Winter Day and Winter Night (leftovers from their last holiday update) feature snow falling on all screens as well a winter scene during play. Its peaceful and almost relaxing. You can also change the dot's color intensities, this is for people who may have a hard time telling them apart. These colors also change based on theme.
I've had Dots on my last three Android phones. Its perfect for killing a minute or two when I have some free time or when I want to bank more dots. At some times its my go-to game when I don't want to wait for something to load. Playdots, Inc. has a follow-up game simply called Two Dots, it follows the same basic gameplay but with a few twists. But that's for another time.
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