Tripline

Title: Tripline
Author: konjak.org
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.konjak.org/games.htm

I am willing to admit when I am wrong. This is one case where I was wrong. When I first played Tripline sometime last year, I thought it was easy and uninteresting and quickly put it aside. I was somewhat bemused when it made more than one "best of" list at the end of the year. But recently for some reason, I decided to give it another try and was pleasantly surprised.

The goal of each Tripline level is to draw a path through each of the symbols. The starting piont for the path is given. The arrow keys are used to draw the path. The path cannot touch or cross itself. Here is the key point to the puzzles, the path must pass through the symbols in groups of threes. The path can end at any symbol.



The levels are pretty easy until you get to this one, level 10. Here, it is not even clear which symbols need to go together to form the triples. You have to do a little topological thinking in matching up those triangles so as to not isolate other symbols. At this point, Tripline got interesting to me.

I finished off the game in a couple of sitting, but there are some tough puzzles in Tripline. I have to say the interface sucks. There is no undo for one thing. Also, it would be nice if you could draw in any line you want and make them connect up at the end. For a couple of levels, I just printed it out and used paper and pencil. There are two ways to view that comment: the puzzles are that good and the interface is that bad.

There are 31 level if I counted correctly which have to be solved in order. If you get stuck, solution are available in their forums. There is no level editor, which is a shame. I am curious what devious things other people could come up with.

Tripline is certainly worth playing. I feel bad that put it a side for so long. So many games, so little time. I haven't finished the latest DROD yet. It is killing me. Ugh.