Link The Slug might seem like a very simple game at first, but it doesn't take long before the real meat of the challenge becomes apparent. On each of the game's many levels, you're presented with a series of cartoonish slugs of different colors, along with a handful of stars. Your job is to tap on two of the same color slugs in succession, creating a pathway between them, and ultimately eliminating them from the board.
 Like we said, it sounds simple. The thing is, those pathways can only travel in one of two ways - as a straight line, or as a pair of perpendicular lines. Those lines can't pass through any other objects either, whether that's through another slug, or one of the deviously placed obstacles sprinkled around each level. To really cap the challenge off, there are three stars to be found in each stage, and if you want to walk away with top honors you'll need to find a way of passing your lines through each one. Phew. It's fun at first, but there's a frighteningly erratic difficulty curve at play here. There are three sets of 25 levels available in the game, and each set introduces a new special power, obstacle or slug type. That's all well and good, but while the first half of each set unfolds naturally and with a sensibly increasing level of difficulty, the tendency is for the game to then throw up a massive brick wall of more complex interactions and puzzle combinations around the half-way point.  The end result is to leave you feeling more frustrated than anything else, and while you can usually find a way of fudging the answer without getting all three stars, it's not very fun to do so. There's a fine line between satisfying challenge and frustration, after all, and Link the Slug fails to walk that line far too often for it to be accidental. Perhaps that's why there's a hint system for this free-to-play game, a system where the first few walkthroughs are free, but the rest will cost you money in the in-app purchase store. Link The Slug's real problem, then, is that it's fun to a degree but also very often simply too clever for its own good. For those who crave only the most dastardly of challenges, there's much that's appealing about the game, so don't write it off entirely if you fall into that category. Even then, progress too often feels like a question of trial and error, rather than a satisfying demonstration of intellect.
What's Hot:A fascinating and refreshing puzzle idea, and at least half the levels make for a fair and fun challenge.
What's Not:There's a very erratic difficulty curve that you can't help but feel has something to do with the IAP hint system.
3.0/5
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