I’m a little embarrassed to admit two things about Two Dots - first, that I continue to hear Pee Wee Herman singing “connect the dots, lalalala” and second, that I took the name of the game very literally.

I lost a few lives before I realized it refers to connecting at least Two Dots and not only Two Dots.

With my confessions out of the way, let me just say how addicted I have become to Two Dots after just a short time playing. 

I’m drawn to the minimalist style of the game, and I even enjoy the catchy, arcade-like background music. The puzzles are similar to a match 3 game – eliminate dots by drawing a horizontal or vertical line connecting at least two dots of the same color. 

Each level has a limited number of moves that you have to complete the puzzle’s objective, which may be eliminating a certain number of each color dot, dropping special objects to the bottom or putting out fires.

Once I got over my initial hurdle of realizing the puzzles are impossible to complete just two dots at a time, I had fun finding the longest string without diagonal lines. Even better – if you can complete a square with at least 4 dots of the same color, you can completely eliminate that color dot from the board. 

I’ve not yet made my way very far into the story behind Two Dots, but just from looking at the game map I am very intrigued.  You begin the game with two companions, a woman and a Gorton’s fisherman lookalike. If you scroll ahead to see future levels, you see quite a bit of the game takes place under the sea and there’s an apparent battle with a giant squid. 

Once you surpass those levels, you are off to conquer the Yeti! And finally, into a fiery land that looks like the inside of a volcano. I wish the story was a little more apparent, as this cast of characters must have a tale to tell, but I will see what I can uncover as I go along.

Two Dots is free to download, but, of course, contains the beloved in-app purchases. If you fail to complete a level, you will lose a life up to a maximum of five times.

Once you have lost all 5 lives, you will have to wait for them to regenerate, which takes around 20 minutes. While that seems like a long time, I recently checked out Bubble Witch Saga 2, which had me waiting for half an hour!  So this seems to be trend now with free games.

The concept of Two Dots is quite simple and may appeal to children, but I’m afraid they would be frustrated by waiting unless parents are willing to fork over a dollar for every life refill.

Two Dots is a fun and challenging new puzzle game with an attractive minimalist design. I enjoyed working my way through the levels – and hearing the catchy little effect when you create a really long string – but was somewhat disillusioned with waiting so long for lives.

My addiction seems to be running pretty strong though, so I’m sure I will be back at it in another 20 minutes!