Design Is Why 2048 Sucks, and Threes Is a Masterpiece

It’s hard to overstate just how good Threes really is. Touch Arcade’s review deemed it a “perfect mobile game.” Ken Wong, the lead designer of the Escherian insta-classic Monument Valley said Threes, ostensibly a rival for mobile mindshare, was “one of the most elegantly designed games since Tetris.” Indeed, its central mechanic–sliding like-numbered tiles together to create higher-numbered tiles–is so utterly simple and exquisitely satisfying it seems like the type of thing that doesn’t get invented so much as discovered.