Rustling Leaves

Rustling Leaves is a fun roll-and-write game, and having 4 different maps and rule sets provides plenty of replayability. However, the app implementation needs a little work. The game doesn't save if you exit the app or back out to the main screen in the middle of a game (which a single tap of the back arrow on your menu bar will do, without a confirm prompt). Also, the game doesn't track a list of your local high scores for classic mode, which I care more about than weekly challenge rankings.

This is a decent, if a bit frustrating port, of the board game. The feel is very similar to the Cartographers app, down to the same 3 options to play when you start the game and the feature that shows you all the available spots to place your area. This is my review of the app itself, from most to least frustrating: -For some reason, after I select my area, if I highlight one of the squares with in, I can go to the next round without scoring anything. This is super frustrating as I've multiple times gone to the next round without meaning to which will mess up my game. This seems like a major bug. -There is no fanfair when the game is over, aside from a small bit of music, it just ends. At least Cartographers showed the score, this one just stops playing. This makes the game feel anti-climatic, especially if the noise is off on my phone. -I can't choose different starting areas when I begin the game, or at least I couldn't figure out how to. In the red mode (fixed board, fixed dice) this is at least randomly selected but in the other modes it is always the same spot in the bottom right corner. This diminishes the replayability for me since games start to feel samey. This is essentially a missing feature. -Some of the UI is not intuitive. For instance, the blue X between the scoring and the board is supposed to be how you exit the game (and it's weird that they decided to put that there), and the use of the joker ability (the once per game free die choice) is awkward especially on phone. You eventually figure it out, but it felt awkward to me to basically learn by trial. -The rules (in English) feel incomplete and could use a revision. Like it doesn't explain what clouds do and some of the phrasing is very unclear -I wish they tracked your score (even just locally) for the green mode since that's the one I play most regularly.

I love the game, the different seasons, and the weekly high score board. The only thing that annoys me is how it flashes the squares that you can use on that turn: Once you have played the game a few times, you know how it works, and the flashing actually makes it harder to choose which squares contain the best combination of symbols. It would be good to have an option to turn it off.