Pobs Review

I love finding a good puzzle game.  They’re the perfect thing to pull out when I’m stuck at an airport or waiting for someone who’s late (two things I spend way too much time doing).  The key is that it has to not only easy enough to play (with one hand if possible) and still challenging enough to make me work for a win.

I was very interested when I saw the game “Pobs” from TimeBom hit the app store.  Sure part of it was because the name of the game rhymed with my name, but the main reason was because after looking at the game description I saw what seemed to be a cross between Chinese Checkers and Othello, both games I like to play.

Both of those game are the types that are very easy to play, but almost impossible to master.  There’s just too many variables and you never know what the opponent is going to do.

In Pobs you start with a few marbles of your color spread around the playfield and your opponent has the same.  On your move you touch the piece you want to activate and you’ll be given a grid to show you where you can move.

Spots right next to you will let you will let you add another piece on the board.  Spots a little farther away will force you to move your piece to that spot, but you’ll lose the spot where you were.

That’s a little bit of the Chinese Checkers side of things, now the Othello side…

If you get a marble next to an opponent’s you will change their marbles to your color.  You see how this goes?  The idea is to end up with the most marbles on the field once everything is filled up.

The best part of the strategy with the game is that sometimes you have to decide if it’s better to move add another piece to the board with a short move or make the jump to another section, which will leave the spot you had vacant, and thereby open for attack.  I can’t tell you how many times in my first few games I wish I’d made a different choice once I saw my opponent jump on an opening I’d left.

Pobs jumps on things with five different game modes (six if you count the secret unlockable mode).  This includes one that let’s you play against a human opponent on the same device.  I do wish that they allowed for more of a WiFi or internet way to do multi-player, but I’ll take this for now.  But I’ll still hope for an update to let me take on the world.

About the only thing I can really think of as a turn off for the game is that the jaded app store customers might see the $3 price tag as steep.  I’m not sure how we got to this stage where $3 is “too much”, but the game isn’t flashy and some might get scared off, or wait for a price drop.  For me… I’m glad I got it right away.  I’ve already spent hours on the game.

Pobs is exactly what I was looking for when I saw it in the app store.  A perfect mix of an easy to play game that has the right amount of challenge and strategy.  The AI in the game is tough to play and that’s just the way I want it.  If you like a quick little challenge on your device there’s no prob… just get Pobs.

Positives: Great Strategic Board Game, Easy To Play – Hard To Master, Plenty Of Play Modes

Negatives: Price Might Turn Some Off, No WiFi mode