Threes! ($5.99) It’s been glued to the top of the top paid apps chart on iTunes since its release, and for good reason: The game is amazing. We gave it a five star review when it came out, and since then my Twitter feed has been flooded with people sharing their high scores in what might be the best Twitter integration I’ve seen in quite some time by an iOS game.
Anyway, if there’s one nitpick about the game that is exceedingly valid it’s that the next card system isn’t as predictable as it feels like it should be in a game like this. For instance, right now you can see if your next card is going to be a blue “1", a red “2", or a white card. The catch is that white card is usually a three, but not always. This introduces an element of “Are you kiddin’ me?!" late in the game when your board is very full and the randomness of what the white card can be ends up being what causes you to lose the game.
If you’ve watched me stream Threes! on Twitch, you’ll see how hairy things get at the end of the game. “I really need this white card to be a ‘3’, oh it’s a ‘6’, GREAT," is a pretty common occurrence. Well, per a tweet of a screenshot of an iMessage conversation (You know, how you announce things in 2014!) between developers Asher Vollmer and Greg Wohlwend, this system is getting tweaked.
In a future update, if the white card you’re going to get is greater than a “3" card, there will be a “+" on it. You’ll still need to deal with an element of randomness of what that high number will be, but at least now you’ll have one more piece of information to work with instead of swiping and crossing your fingers you don’t get owned by a errant “12" card you really didn’t need popping up in the wrong spot.
No word on when this is happening yet, but it seems like a simple change, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it landed in whatever/whenever the next update to the game is.