Enigmo: A Shower of Entropy

Since I got my iPhone 3G, I’ve downloaded, that is paid, for exactly 3 games. The best - by a long shot - is Enigmo, from Pangea Software. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s basically a puzzle game where you have a certain set of tools on each level that you need to use to somehow route a bunch of droplets of liquid from point A to point B. Sounds lame, right? Maybe this will clear things up:

Not so lame anymore, huh? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Anyway, this game, besides just blatantly robbing my time, has actually spoken to me on a deeper level (think wading pool). For those of you who may know me, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I find myself constantly balancing my idealism against productivity and efficiency. Enigmo helps me practice this. You’re trying to get all of these little droplets over to one place, but soon realize that things are just a bit more chaotic than you accounted for. In almost all the levels, much to my dismay, you just can’t get every droplet into the pot. It’s all about getting “good enough.”

And that’s OK! Because there’s a countdown racing to zero, and the goal isn’t to get all the droplets into the pots, but rather to get as many points as possible by finishing quickly. And even then, you only need to fill fast enough for them not to evaporate. The best way to get big points: just do it. It doesn’t have to be beautiful or ideal; there’s no “grand scheme” to the game, and there’s definitely more than one solution

So if you, like me, suffer from “entrophobia”, pick up this game asap and start embracing the insanity.