Tag puzzle game

Gematombe is an Action-Puzzle-Versus game from Ratalaika Games that is a hybrid of several classic puzzle titles.

What happens when you take a fighter like Street Fighter Puzzle Fighter and blend in controls from Bubble Bobble? You get Gematombe from Ratalaika Games. Controlling one of six Greek entities, referred to as the daemons along with a hidden seventh character. Working alongside Pandora you are sent to help capture all of the evils in the world.

The game plays like Bubble Bobble in terms of controls and stage layout but with a slight twist. In BB you would shoot bubbles of a specific color to pop similarly colored bubbles that were already there or add additional colors to existing ones. With Gematombe, the bubbles you shoot hit and bounce off of different bubbles or blocks and as long as you hit two or more it will pop all connected bubbles of the same color. Each stage is a battle between you and one of the evils. Winning is done by either clearing your board OR banking enough combos to generate extra bubbles for the evil you’re facing to deal with.

Conceptually the game is quite simple as are the controls. Quickly planning combos though is where the real skill lies and I don’t have it. I was fast enough to clear my board on each level but could never bank the high points and deal damage effectively. The game is a fun game that is easy to play in small doses or longer runs. I feel like most games these days strive to increase the time needed to play a single level and draw out that conclusion. This is definitely not one of those games. In a matter of 10-15 minutes, tops, I was able to complete the first two stages. This game is perfect for my wife who is great at recognizing patterns quickly and I am excited to see how well she fares.

The Entropy Centre is a temporal puzzle game designed like a first person shooter by Playstack London on Next Gen consoles.

The Entropy Centre looks and feels like a cross between Faraday Protocol and Superliminal. Both games take you one a puzzle filled adventure where you have been abducted and have no idea where you are. Playstack London deliver a world that is beautifully rendered, seemingly void of life and full of dangers. The danger however seems to be more implied than actually dangerous.

As you navigate the facility you first pick up a temporal gun of sorts that can rewind time up to 30 seconds for any given object. Of course even that isn’t exactly right. One of the first things that you rewind time on is the collapsed ceiling of a hallway you need to take. This ceiling collapsed way more than 30 seconds prior. Based on the rules of this gun rewinding a maximum of 30 seconds should have no effect on the rubble. Ignoring the flaws in this logic though the effects are very well done. I suspect the danger has far from begun though.

Visually the game is simply stunning. The controls are simple enough to master and the puzzles are creative. Some can seem maddening but with a little creativity they aren’t too bad. With the aid of a cheerful robot guiding you the game leaves you wanting to know more.

Buka Entertainment Enterprises brings their latest title, Tetragon, where the world is manipulated by rotating it and moving platforms.

Buka Entertainment provided a review copy of their latest game, Tetragon. As you progress through the world you will solve puzzles by either rotating the entire world or manipulating platforms to move to the exit or to some sort of collectible. The biggest “pitfall” with this puzzler is that the hero has a limited fall distance before instant death. The good news here though is that you return to the same puzzle but it is reset each time. The resetting of the stage can actually help the puzzle as you may make mistakes the first time around- I know I did on several of them and the reset made correcting those mistakes much easier.

Controls feel a bit clunky as at times you cannot rotate the screen certain directions when you could before or some platforms don’t move until the camera is rotated a certain way and there are no visual indicators, that I noticed, to indicate when this is happening. Visuals are more advanced than the retro 8-bit style but not significantly and the story comes in pieces but left me intrigued. The puzzles in this game are creative and sometimes require more thought than I expected but after two hours of gameplay left me feeling like the game is meh. I plan on playing another couple of hours to see if this changes but experience with the game so far tells me it won’t significantly.

Ever wondered what the world would look like if you woke up from a coma? With Neversong you can!

Neversong is a side scrolling platformer from Serenity Forge that requires ingenuity to solve it’s many puzzles and defeat the many adults. I mean monsters. The world has become much darker upon Peet’s waking up from his coma. His best friend (and possible love interest?) has been kidnapped and it is up to Peet to find her. She has been taken to Blackfork Asylum and her fate looks grim.

The puzzles require some thought and many can’t be completed until returning later with new abilities. Graphically the game is rather simple but quite endearing in its simplicity. You are greeted with a dark story-line where this same darkness permeates everything and yet still manages to feel like a game to be enjoyed by the family. Neversong looks and plays similar to games like Limbo and it’s sequel Inside.

When I first started the game I felt a weird kinship with Peet having been in a coma myself at the beginning of the year. The coma was handled tastefully and was an interesting starting point for a story. For someone that barely recovered from a coma he is quite athletic.

Overall I found the game enjoyable and look forward to being able to spend more time helping Peet save his lady love.