The Mayan theme seems to be going strong in the App Store. A few weeks back it had been Mezopuzzle, and now it’s Noid’s turn to go the ancient civilization’s way.

Noid is styled along the lines of a brick breaker game, with several power ups thrown in to make the game play more exciting.  There is a paddle at the bottom of the screen to bounce the balls on to break the bricks lined up on the screen. We can move the paddle from left to right and vice versa by sliding it with our finger. To release the ball, we need to touch it and then swipe it towards the direction we wish it to go.

We can choose to play the Normal mode with 40 levels, or if that is not enough to satisfy us, we can go for the Endless mode with limitless levels. As for the power ups, they come with a specific color and their own abilities. For instance, the sticky green gem makes the ball stick to the paddle instead of bouncing off, while the purple gem which is the extra life gem does just that. Breaking more than one brick at a time gets us combo scores. There are nine such gems, so there is always something to look forward to.

When there are no more bricks left on the screen, we clear the level and move to the next one. If we are interrupted in the middle of a game, it gets saved, so we don’t have to worry about starting all over again. The game play is accompanied by Mayan inspired music too.

The tutorials can be a bit bothersome because they pop up every time a power up comes along, but we can turn it off in the settings so that is a relief. I feel that the game takes a little too long to load too. Otherwise Noid is a fun game to play when things get boring. Mezopuzzle makes better use of the Mayan theme, but this is still a good game to play.

• App Name: Noid
• Price: $0.99
• App Category: Games
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• Developer:Tip Tap Games
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