Piet Mondrian, a Dutch abstractionist noted for his puzzle brilliant and whimsical paintings utilizing varied size primary color boxes divided by strong black lines, is one of my favorite artists. I’ve always admired abstract art from the 20th century, and one of my favorite painters is Piet Mondrian. Even the backgrounds on my laptops have been inspired by Mondrian at different points, and I even have a few posters of him. As soon as I found out that the game development firm Binary Cocoa had created an abstract puzzle game based on Mondrian’s art for one to five players, I knew that I needed to purchase a copy for myself and give it a try.
I’m really happy that I did since it’s one of the finest
With a setup time of less than one minute and a cleanup time that is just as lightning quick, Mondrian: Color in Motion is the perfect alternative to the massive games I’ve been playing lately (looking at you, Kingdom Death: Monster). The deck includes eighty cards, each of puzzle which features three large, vibrant squares, as well as a variety of both black and white markers. That sums it up well. The following is how it was set up the first time that I played the game:
Awarded a token in white
My “hand” consists of the three cards at the bottom of the stack, while the blue-white-blue card in the center of the stack serves as the initial card for the puzzle. The stack of leftover cards is on the right, the “Binary Cocoa” fabric appliqué is purely for fun (because it’s pretty awesome! ), the black and white tokens are on the left, and the directions are actually written on a single piece of paper that is double-sided. That sums it up well.
At the beginning of each of your turns, you must position one of your cards such that one or more of its matching squares overlaps a square or squares that are already present on the pattern. Every square that has a successful overlap is awarded a token in white. After then, you leap tokens following the standard Checkers rules (although you may also jump diagonally), and you retain any markers that you earn. Players must trade in 10 white markers in exchange for one black puzzle marker before moving on to the next card. This is done so that there are always fresh white markers available. The only other requirement is that if you put a card next to a square, even if the square itself is empty, the card you place must match the color of the square, even if the square itself is empty. That’s all.
After a few attempts, during one of which I accidentally made the game more difficult for myself by ignoring the rule governing diagonal jumps, I was finally able to puzzle beat the game. I reloaded the game and began playing it in the single-player mode.
Due to the fact that the red
This time, the beginning tile was yellow, white, and red, and I put a card that was white, red, and white on top of it, as seen below:
Due to the fact that the red and white squares overlapping one other, I added two more white markers. Then, I had the option of jumping the white marker over the red puzzle one, which would result in the red marker landing on the white square. Alternatively, I could leap the white marker over the red one, which would result in the red marker landing on the yellow square. Exactly like Checkers!
While you may always insert cards by expanding out the playing area problem, the scoring mechanism for the game is the acquisition of markers. In a game with several puzzle players, the markers that have already put belong to the game and not to the individual players; hence, it is puzzle acceptable for you to leap and collect a marker that another player has already placed. And vice-versa. If you’re playing solitaire, you’re the only one attempting to rack up as many points as possible, so the atmosphere is clearly a little less cutthroat (unless, I guess, you have many personas vying for control of your mind!)
A little farther along in the game
You can’t set a card over a square that already has a marker in it, so a puzzle few cards later I’ll fill in two empty areas by having the red square to the right match the empty square. This is because you can’t place a card over a square that already has a marker in it. While the other two squares on this card cover vacant spaces, this move only allowed because the colors of the squares that are next to each other match.
To put it another way, if the bottom were yellow, red, and yellow, I would not able to place this card since white cannot placed next to a yellow square in the same row or column. This only applies to empty squares, thus if I had a red-red-red, I could play this card vertically covering all three red squares after it played, since this only applies to empty spaces:
Take note of the intriguing conundrum that can found on dordle the right edge: whenever this card used, a marker placed on the right square, bringing our total number of puzzle markers up to three. Yet, there is no leap move since you are unable to jump off the board during gameplay. Markers have the ability to, and often do, need at least a dozen or even fifty cards to played before it is possible to acquire them or use them to obtain further markers.
A bit further along
Things are getting off to a good start, and the new vertical puzzle card with white, blue, and blue on it (with two squares that overlap each other and collect markers) provides a great leap move: The marker at the bottom of the board first hops up, and then the marker at the top hops down. Two new pieces added to the board, and two new points were added to your total. Nice!
Finding three-square matches, like the ones I have here, is also a lot of fun and may be quite lucrative:
This will offer me four markers in a vertical line, which should make it easier for me to obtain the first two of them right away. In point of fact, I discovered that the tighter the problem becomes and the better your score is the more you attempt to overlap two or three puzzle squares simultaneously. The greater the number of markers that are present on the board, the greater the possibility of achieving a better score.
When we get down to the final twenty
Keep in mind that in addition to jumping horizontally and vertically, you may also hop diagonally as long as you land on a square while figuring out how many markers puzzle you can remove by jumping over them. I worked my way up to the spot above and removed five marks. Are you able to follow the moves?
When we get down to the final twenty or so cards, you can see that I have six black markers, each worth ten points, and ten white markers, for a total of seventy puzzle points at this stage in the game. The board is very thick, but when seen from an angle, it is possible to discern that certain squares have had as many as six or even seven more pieces added to them:
Look over there on the right! You are able to view a total of 5 puzzle levels here. Because of this, it will be impossible for you to preserve the problem area in its original rectilinear shape. I made an effort:
I played the 80th card
And last but not least, I played the 80th card, leaped up puzzle and grabbed as many markers as I could, and ended up with the following board and score:
You are not subject to any penalties despite the fact that there were 10 markers that not removed from the playing field. Your score is the most important thing, and mine is 15 black markers and 5 white markers for a total of 155 points once all said and done.
To tell you the truth, I can’t express how much I like playing this game enough. The straightforward gameplay, tasteful design, and uncomplicated set-up and clean-up make it a strong contender for the title of one of my all-time favorite puzzle games. You should have no trouble explaining this to a buddy in less than five minutes, and even smaller children will comprehend both the rules for the placing of the cards and the rules regarding the leaping of the markers. These are simple to do. The elements come together in such a satisfying way to create an amazing puzzle game. Even better, playing in solitary mode peaceful since there is neither a timer nor any potential hazards to avoid; instead, you treated to a relaxed gaming experience as the board expands and your marker pile builds.
