It’s time once more for another of those 100% fully-free ad-supported games, continuing the fine tradition of previous apps like City on Fire (our review) and PigeonMan (our review), this time going by name of Six! (the exclamation-mark is part of the title). You’ve been tasked with keeping a hexagon alive — so the title is possibly a reference to how many points a hexagon has — who furthermore wants to reach the ground, which is a problem since someone’s callously placed the hexagon atop a bunch of Tetris-like blocks. Ergo your mission is to aide this hexagon by destroying all of these pesky blocks — which can easily be done just by tapping them — with the caveat being that everything previously above the block will afterwards start to tilt, fall, and buckle via simulated-physics.
So long as you keep the hexagon sitting safely on top of the block-pile the action will continue, but the game is basically over once the hexagon has fallen to whatever fate awaits below (although you’ll have a few seconds to tap more blocks after this happens). This might not seem initially as though it’d be all that terribly hard, but after your first couple of failures — all likely arriving less than seconds apart — you’ll quickly discover that Six! (out now, free) is a game demanding careful forethought, alongside rapid block removal. For a game that features such a simple upfront concept, Six!’s early learning-curve is — all things considered — actually more than a fair touch on the positively brutal side of things.
Once players finally come to terms with how to avoid kicking their hexagon straight into the abyss, they’ll then become interested in the two separate methods that Six! contains for gauging one’s progress: points and stars. You’ll receive precisely five points for each Tetris-like block you successfully eradicate, with Six! afterwards eternally remembering your all-time best-session of time-honored block-slaying. Far more important than those points — however — is that there exist interval-checkpoints along the hexagon’s perilous journey, and players will be gifted with a single star for each of those safely breached.
Players can then — once they’ve first stockpiled enough of these stars — purchase a skin for their hexagon, finally making real those hexagon dress-up fantasies some of you have been secretly harboring. Furthermore, obtaining a full collection of these hexagonal-outfits — which start in price at 30 stars, yet move quickly upwards after that — could take a hefty deal of time to completely gather. Finally, since there an no IAP-options in Six! — beyond the ability to disable all ads — collecting these stars are absolutely the only method for obtaining every last alternate-appearance offered for your ever-falling hexagon.
Additionally — speaking of those in-game ads — I’m rather pleased to report that Six! has mercifully placed these ads on your screen’s topside, meaning you’ll never need worry about accidentally hitting them whilst you play (unlike some other ad-supported games).
Anyways, beyond the primary-mode — which features an endless, yet freshly randomized, lay-out of Tetris-like blocks each time — these stars can also be earned within Six!’s puzzle-mode (wherein players tackle a series of pre-created non-randomized scenarios). Since the lay-outs for these puzzles never change, puzzle-mode can be an ideal way for players to come to grips with how best to safely escort their descending hexagon though various arrangements of Tetris-like blocks. However — whereas a player may endlessly replay Six!’s primary-mode — the three stars offered by each puzzle may only be earned once ever, although there do exist three freshly-delivered limited-time puzzles every day.
Like many other totally-free ad-supported games — although exceptions like Skipmore’s Drancia (our review) and Fairune (our review) do exist — the chief problem is that the game in question is often an extremely simplistic-offering, and Six! isn’t much different. Although you might find a deep amount of joy within Six!’s easy to pick up action, to the point where you’d find yourself often returning, you’re just as likely to find yourself bored within minutes of picking this up as well. As such it’s a very good thing Six! is free because it’d be extremely hard to solidly recommend this otherwise, but — as things currently stand — this is definitely a free game that some of you are going to quite dig.
Verdict
Six! is a game where players eliminate Tetris-like blocks — done by simply tapping them — in order to help a hexagon slowly travel downwards, with the major caveat be everything falls — buckles — and tumbles via real-physics. The game continues until the hexagon falls to its doom; until then players may earn points (by smashing the blocks), and stars by travelling past downwards-progress checkpoints (which are used to buy hexagon-outfits). The only IAP found within this app is one that removes all of the in-game ads, which is a good thing since this title — which some will love, but others will tire of rather quickly — would be rather hard to recommend if it weren’t being offered for absolutely free upfront.