The Tribloos 2 (out now, $2.99) is the sequel to the original time management game, The Tribloos, by Bumpkin Brothers. The village in which the cat-like creatures, the tribloos, live has been hit by a torrential storm so huge it resembles a waterfall. It’s your job to lead them in constructing weather stations and other buildings and tools to find out where the storm is coming from and what’s causing it.
Unlike most time management games involving construction, whether of buildings or roads, The Tribloos 2 offers a refreshing vertical layout instead of the more common top-down map. Everything takes place on platforms linked by ladders and other devices such as rope slides.
The game is simple, though you’ll have to optimize the various steps in order to complete a level as fast as possible and earn a gold award. There are some tasks you’ll have to finish before others, either because they’re blocking your path or because you need to accumulate certain resources.
Every item you can interact with comes with a button you can tap, and through this same button you can add additional workers, up to the maximum number shown (provided you have enough workers). There is no way to manually hire more workers. You will automatically get five more workers each time you build a house—if they are available for you to build. Before you can build a house, you’ll have to have enough wood. You can amass this through collecting wood piles or building a sawmill, which also requires wood. Generally, you’ll want to build the sawmill before constructing too many other buildings, or you could run out of wood and have to start the level all over again. Running yourself into a dead end is probably the biggest challenge involved, but it really isn’t difficult to check every item before you begin.
Other than building houses and sawmills, you’ll also need to collect and house dragon eggs, build windmills and bake bread, etc and etc. The Tribloos 2 offers 75 campaign levels, 15 challenge levels, and five bonus levels. In all of these, you’ll want to build and complete the goals as fast as you can.
Though The Tribloos 2 is very well made and I can hardly find fault with it, I didn’t enjoy it as much as some other time management games. Maybe it’s because I found it too straightforward and thus repetitive. And maybe it’s also because it lacks certain extras, such as power-ups. With its simple controls though, the game is excellent for kids.
iFanzine Verdict: The Tribloos 2 is an excellent time management game simple enough for kids to enjoy. It is extremely refreshing to navigate through a vertical layout. On the other hand, this isn’t the most challenging time management game around.