Developer/Publisher: Steph Thirion
Verdict: Buy it.  Plain and Simple.  Yes, with a capital S ($3.99)
Pros: Polished and well-executed
Cons: Nada. Zip. Zilch.  Don’t be a hater.
Released: March 6, 2009

Eliss is an award-winning game by my new favorite web-heroine (I’m kind of just assuming a gender here), er, HERO, yeah, definitely the man, Steph Thirion. Steph is a Spanish multimedia artist, with projects like this one to thrill and calm you at the same time. As for Eliss:  Go get this game NOW.  Right now.  I mean it.  I’m not even going to waste words explaining it to you.  Watch the trailer.  Buy the game.

I’ll spend a few seconds explaining it, but then I’m going back to playing it. Because, honestly, playing this game is the best way to understand this game. N’cest Pas?

Eliss is everything I’ve ever wanted in a iPhone/Touch game.  It’s stylish, strategically deep and put together in a very clean, tight way.  It uses the multi-touch feature of the iPhone OS in a clever and beautiful manner that makes me feel clever and beautiful just for playing it.  Which is why I want to get back to playing it, because, frankly, I’m neither clever nor beautiful and I want to hold on to that illusion for as long as possible. It’s the first game I’ve played on my Touch that lets me use more than one finger. Eliss was made for this interface, not just adapted.  And trust me, you’ll need to use as many of your pudgy digits as you can fit on the screen to survive the games more advanced levels.

I want, no, neeeeed to pull apart giant, multi-colored orbs.  I need to push the tiny, cute little orbs together to create colossal orbs.  I need to shuffle them around, keep the colors separate and make gorgeously satisfying supernovas.  And I have to do it fast.  There’s that evil, malignant timer!  Keep the colors separate or that timer will accelerate in some devilishly-mean way.  Oh, the ecstasy of it!  The passion!  The drama!

Steph Thirion, whose other work is equally awesome, has through this one, lone game made me feel happily inadequate as an artist.  Happily, I say, because what better way to make some one feel inadequate than to give them a game to take their mind off it.

Ok, enough.  GO PLAY IT. Or, you know, dither here and watch this video. TOTALLY up to you. (go buy it, now!)

Eliss – trailer from steph thirion on Vimeo.