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What happens when you cross the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise with the classic video game Dots and Boxes? You get PieRats! This new iOS adventure takes the retro classic to a whole new level. Instead of drawing boxes, your objective is to eat as many pies as you can, all while removing bones strategically on the many included maps.

Who Is In Control?

PieRats keeps you guessing from the start. Containing both Single and Multi-Player situations, you can choose to go up against the AI, play against your friend on the same screen, play against people online, or play across multiple devices. The latter makes for a more challenging affair.

Several difficulty levels are included – Easy, Medium and Hard. Each level contains several maps. The free version includes many, but more are available via an in app purchase. Some maps contain full grids filled with pies. Others differ by having black boxes with no objects in them spread out randomly across the grid around the normal boxes which contain pies.  Once you select your map the game begins. Gameplay consists of each player removing bones one by one. Since you are on a grid, each pie is surrounded by four bones. After removing bones, whenever one is left, the player who removes the last surrounding bone gets to eat the pie on the respective square and gets the points. Depending on how the bones are removed, multiple pies can be eaten leading to the accumulation of more points. Other objects such as Pink Diamonds give more points. Some levels have skulls on the grid. Remove the bones surrounding these and you lose points. Each bone chosen for removal grows in size, allowing for confirmation before committing to your move.

In Practice

The AI in Single Player mode is take-no-prisoners no matter the chosen level of difficulty. You will need to think and have lots of patience, all of which makes the gameplay lots of fun. We found that it was best to first remove the bones at the outside edges of the boxes furthest from the center of the grid. AI movement was predictable at first with this strategy, removing bones from opposite sides of the grid. Things would not remain this way however. As bones are removed, more opportunities to eat several pies arise, which can leave you at a disadvantage if you don’t preempt effectively.

Verdict

We enjoyed PieRats a lot. It has the air of sophistication of chess with the fun factor that kids would enjoy. If the game came with one map and only involved you playing against the AI, it would still be worth playing. PieRats comes with several maps, different characters to choose from, three difficulty levels and several player modes - a great value even without the in app purchases. We say check it out. This is one game that will keep you in perpetual thinking mode for as long as you play it.

GMA