Pipemania Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

A classic game returns with a bunch of extra features.

Back in my younger days, the only pixel pumbler that grabbed my attention was Mario. The man would fight evil through the art of jump or race around tracks. Did we ever see him use his City & Guilds training in fixing a dodgy stop cock? Was he actually a plumber or just another cowboy? If you pandered for some plumbing gaming, Mario was pushed to one side and Pipemania was loaded up.

There's no mushrooms to eat in Pipemania, you are here to do a job and that's to fix the pipes. It is essentially a puzzle game where you hae to lay sections of pipe and keep the water flowing for as long as possible.

At times the game feels like a bite sized snake where you keep adding section to an ever growing geen tube. But there is much more on offer here. For a start there are three different modes, Story, Puzzle and Classic. Story mode sees you find the root of the water leaks and it takes 20 levels to discover the problem (yet another cowboy plumber).

Each level has a set number of pipes that have to be correctly laid in line within a time limit; later levels require you to connect the pipes from the outlet to a far away inlet. The pipe sections are randomly selected and come in all types of shapes. There is a certain freedom in the game where you are not obliged to find a home for every pipe section. Although if you want to get big points, then it's worth finding somewhere to stick your U-bend.

The graphics are nothing spectacular. Everything is clear and easy to see but there are no special effects or fancy backgrounds to admire. It's squarely aimed at the mid-range handset without being overly lightweight.

Each of the modes has an impressive 20 levels and if you get high enough scores, you can win medals for your efforts. More importantly than medals, high scores will also unlock some valuable hints including a secret code. The difficulty level is pitched about right with some levels requiring a few attempts but never causing a mobile chucking moment. Completing 95% of the game will probably take 2-3 hours. Replaying some of the levels in order to win the gold medal and finish off the final 5% could take another couple of hours. At the end of it all there is a random option where you can play to your heart's content.