However, yes, really, I'm still going to talk about it, because a) if you haven't heard of it before, you will thank me, and b) BECAUSE it's such a masterful Jedi of game design skills, it obviously deserves some recognition on here of all places.
What does Entanglement do right?
It doesn't make you read! With the exception of text adventures, any reading required in most games should be kept to a minimum--the show-rather-than-tell principle good writers use. And while there's an unspoken legal requirement for all games to come with instructions, I started out on Entanglement just turning tiles and seeing what would happen--within seconds I had the mechanics down. Rotate the tile until you're happy with your chosen path, make it so, repeat. No reading, just relaxing. Which brings me to my second point of awesomeness...
It's competitive without being retarded! I'm not at all implying that games primarily based on obtaining the highest score against other players is somehow "not good enough." But if you've been playing casual games for a while, you'll notice just how crude and retarded some people are about the competition. And there's always that one guy or two who you're convinced is either hacking the system or has no life because of how ludicrously they dominate the charts. But as Entanglement's score tables change daily, getting onto the top players of the day is a pretty reasonable accomplishment. All players who submit scores have to do so under a pseudo ninja title; mine is "Shiny Blue Penguin" although there are far more nonsensical customization options usually involving unicorns. FURTHERMORE, you don't have to submit a score at all! Entanglement's Zen aesthetic encourages self-improvement over vicious combat against other anonymous players, which brings me to the third point of awesomeness...
It soothes the soul! Over the years I've tried, with varying degrees of success, to develop some yoga/meditation/general stress-less relaxation techniques. Given how much time I'm already sitting in front of a screen working or playing or living these days, Entanglement has more or less become my official go-to "mediation." Trust me, it works! All I have to do is open a new tab, click on my app bookmark, and off I am immersed in a soundtrack of rhythmic gongs and strings that I swear was stolen from Avatar's soundtrack (the TV show, you non-geeks) and surrounded by earth-tone geometric shapes that give me the wonderful pretense that I'm playing something deep and stereotypically Asian like Go or Pai Sho (which is actually from a TV show). I can finish a game in five or so minutes and gain some swell peace of mind... as much as you can get from staring at a screen too long before getting hit hard with a migraine.
So what are you waiting for? Go get tangled in Entanglement!
*bad pun*
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