▲ Recommended
8 hrs
In short: It's a perfectly functional, if pretty cheaply-made puzzle game with zero variety, but a lot of content. I'm enjoying myself and the pricing is very fair.
In long: The game has one mechanic and one mechanic only: After 10 tutorial levels there will always be a 6x6 grid on which 2- and 3-tile blocks are arranged so they block the exit. Grabbing them with the mouse allows you to slide them along their length-axis. You need to cleverly slide them back and forth until you've moved the target block (always on the third row from the top) to the right edge of the grid so you can slide it out of the exit. There is an undo button which comes in very handy on later levels. There is no time limit (and indeed no time keeping even), but there is a target number of moves on each level which seems to be based on the optimal solution (as I've never managed to beat it). Based on your performance you'll be awarded 1-3 stars, but the game is thankfully very generous in this evaluation. The following move-counts all gave me the full 3 stars: 11/10, 17/15 and 25/21 while 29/24 only awarded me 2 stars. With this leeway it's fairly easy to 3-star every level.
The 256 premade levels will keep you busy for a long time. They fall into 4 categories of 64 levels each (Beginner, Medium, Hard, Master). The progression is very gentle. After about 35 levels the solutions stopped being obvious to me. It took me 2 hours to clear the Beginner levels and another 5 (pretty casual) hours of clearing the Medium levels. To give you an idea: Medium levels end with levels of up to 24 target moves, Master levels start with over 35. New categories are unlocked by collecting stars. 3-starring the whole Beginner category will pretty much unlock the whole game. While this is very accessible, within the categories you sadly have to beat the levels in sequence. The next only unlocks after the current level is beaten and you can't skip ahead. Personally I've never found it overly frustrating in this particular game, but in general I'm not a huge fan of game design allowing you to get stuck and forcing you to beat your head against a wall. There is no level generator or editor.
The Unity loader takes care of most technical aspects (resolution, windowed mode). The game is very obviously a cheap and somewhat lazy, but completely functional mobile port. The Exit-button is tacked on (see store screenshot), the level selection pages scroll sideways, mouse wheel does some strange stuff, the desktop icon is laughable - this game is clearly not built for a PC user! But even though the port is lazy, it is not a trainwreck. I can tell that at least some thought went into the Steam version since they bothered to include the Exit-button, Esc is bound as a sensible menu hotkey (sadly the only one - I'd have loved to see hotkeys for undo and reset) and nothing is broken (way more than I can say about some other puzzle game mobile ports on Steam).
The game lacks volume control, which doesn't turn out to be a huge issue. There's exactly 2 (cheap) sound effects, which I don't mind. And thankfully you can mute the music, because frankly it is hilariously atrocious! It's a single 60 second loop playing relentlessly from when you start the game until you close it. After 5 seconds I laughed at how utterly horrible it was. After 30 seconds I was morbidly curious because surely this auditory torture couldn't be the whole score of the game. After 2.5 painful and grating minutes and two very obvious loops I shut it off for good. The visuals are nothing to write home about either. Go by the store screenshots, that's everything you're going to see - a few drawn backgrounds and basic uni-colored blocks. All the wasted screen real estate makes me kind of sad - I would even prefer a smaller window honestly.
Still, from my personal experience with the game I actually quite enjoyed myself. It turned out to be a fun casual timesink that still challenges your brain a little. It's a calm game with zero pressure, but lots of planning and thinking ahead. I was surprised at how much variety you can get out of a 6x6 grid and two kinds of blocks and how long it kept (and keeps) me interested. I don't know what it is, but that last freeing slide to the right feels very satisfying on levels you've been stuck on previously. I appreciate the instant effect of hitting the undo and reset buttons (even though it probably was just lazyness and not a design choice). I had my doubts at first, but the difficulty actually scales well - as levels become longer, more elaborate and more crowded the amount of possible moves goes down, which prevents feeling overwhelmed. Due to the amount of levels I can see definite replayability as you won't remember them after a few days.
In conclusion this is the mother of all one-trick-ponies. There's probably some squandered potential, but in the end the game does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more. But also nothing less. While cheaply made, the game is completely functional and due to the amount of content I actually think the price is very fair. On sale for -70% this becomes an absolute bargain for puzzle afficionados!
If you are looking for a game with good presentation and variety - look elsewhere. But if you are looking for a solid puzzle game that does its job well or for an accessible game to fire up for just a handfull of levels if you have some minutes to burn - you've come to the right place!
In long: The game has one mechanic and one mechanic only: After 10 tutorial levels there will always be a 6x6 grid on which 2- and 3-tile blocks are arranged so they block the exit. Grabbing them with the mouse allows you to slide them along their length-axis. You need to cleverly slide them back and forth until you've moved the target block (always on the third row from the top) to the right edge of the grid so you can slide it out of the exit. There is an undo button which comes in very handy on later levels. There is no time limit (and indeed no time keeping even), but there is a target number of moves on each level which seems to be based on the optimal solution (as I've never managed to beat it). Based on your performance you'll be awarded 1-3 stars, but the game is thankfully very generous in this evaluation. The following move-counts all gave me the full 3 stars: 11/10, 17/15 and 25/21 while 29/24 only awarded me 2 stars. With this leeway it's fairly easy to 3-star every level.
The 256 premade levels will keep you busy for a long time. They fall into 4 categories of 64 levels each (Beginner, Medium, Hard, Master). The progression is very gentle. After about 35 levels the solutions stopped being obvious to me. It took me 2 hours to clear the Beginner levels and another 5 (pretty casual) hours of clearing the Medium levels. To give you an idea: Medium levels end with levels of up to 24 target moves, Master levels start with over 35. New categories are unlocked by collecting stars. 3-starring the whole Beginner category will pretty much unlock the whole game. While this is very accessible, within the categories you sadly have to beat the levels in sequence. The next only unlocks after the current level is beaten and you can't skip ahead. Personally I've never found it overly frustrating in this particular game, but in general I'm not a huge fan of game design allowing you to get stuck and forcing you to beat your head against a wall. There is no level generator or editor.
The Unity loader takes care of most technical aspects (resolution, windowed mode). The game is very obviously a cheap and somewhat lazy, but completely functional mobile port. The Exit-button is tacked on (see store screenshot), the level selection pages scroll sideways, mouse wheel does some strange stuff, the desktop icon is laughable - this game is clearly not built for a PC user! But even though the port is lazy, it is not a trainwreck. I can tell that at least some thought went into the Steam version since they bothered to include the Exit-button, Esc is bound as a sensible menu hotkey (sadly the only one - I'd have loved to see hotkeys for undo and reset) and nothing is broken (way more than I can say about some other puzzle game mobile ports on Steam).
The game lacks volume control, which doesn't turn out to be a huge issue. There's exactly 2 (cheap) sound effects, which I don't mind. And thankfully you can mute the music, because frankly it is hilariously atrocious! It's a single 60 second loop playing relentlessly from when you start the game until you close it. After 5 seconds I laughed at how utterly horrible it was. After 30 seconds I was morbidly curious because surely this auditory torture couldn't be the whole score of the game. After 2.5 painful and grating minutes and two very obvious loops I shut it off for good. The visuals are nothing to write home about either. Go by the store screenshots, that's everything you're going to see - a few drawn backgrounds and basic uni-colored blocks. All the wasted screen real estate makes me kind of sad - I would even prefer a smaller window honestly.
Still, from my personal experience with the game I actually quite enjoyed myself. It turned out to be a fun casual timesink that still challenges your brain a little. It's a calm game with zero pressure, but lots of planning and thinking ahead. I was surprised at how much variety you can get out of a 6x6 grid and two kinds of blocks and how long it kept (and keeps) me interested. I don't know what it is, but that last freeing slide to the right feels very satisfying on levels you've been stuck on previously. I appreciate the instant effect of hitting the undo and reset buttons (even though it probably was just lazyness and not a design choice). I had my doubts at first, but the difficulty actually scales well - as levels become longer, more elaborate and more crowded the amount of possible moves goes down, which prevents feeling overwhelmed. Due to the amount of levels I can see definite replayability as you won't remember them after a few days.
In conclusion this is the mother of all one-trick-ponies. There's probably some squandered potential, but in the end the game does exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more. But also nothing less. While cheaply made, the game is completely functional and due to the amount of content I actually think the price is very fair. On sale for -70% this becomes an absolute bargain for puzzle afficionados!
If you are looking for a game with good presentation and variety - look elsewhere. But if you are looking for a solid puzzle game that does its job well or for an accessible game to fire up for just a handfull of levels if you have some minutes to burn - you've come to the right place!
32 found helpful
Steam ↗
