Puzzle Dazzle Review
I am always up for chill puzzle games that remind me of Tetris, so when I saw Puzzle Dazzle, I knew it was a title worth checking out. Smash Game Studios has created a block-clearing game that is challenging and feels very different from others I have played in the past. I can’t wait to find out if this will become a new go-to puzzle game to play when I want to relax and be challenged, or if it completely misses the mark.
There are two modes available to play in Puzzle Dazzle: Arcade and Challenge Mode. Before you start playing, you are asked to select one of three available difficulties: Cosy, an easier, more relaxing mode where you can immerse yourself in music and enjoy a colourful challenge; Moderate, a more challenging experience that surrounds you with music and art; and finally, Expert, which says the beat intensifies and so does the fun.
This is a block-dropping game like Tetris, but instead of clearing lines, you try to clear colour cubes consisting of two-by-two or larger groupings of the same-coloured pieces. The pieces that fall can be two blocks high and one wide, and be one colour or two different colours. There are larger clusters measuring four-by-four, with an assortment of colour variations — like all one colour, two alternating (e.g. blue and green on top, then green and blue on the bottom), or half and half. When you place a piece on top of a block that is already on the bottom, any part hanging over without support will fall down.
Before you commit and drop your shape all the way down, you can preview how it will break apart when placed, allowing you to plan the position according to the surrounding colours. As you clear blocks, the ones above them will drop down and possibly trigger a chain combo. This is very important when you're trying to complete challenges in each stage and achieve the highest score possible. Just dropping pieces randomly and hoping for the best is sure to end in failure.
The controls are pretty easy to learn, especially if you’ve played games like Tetris before. Move the piece using the D-pad (you can use the left thumbstick, but I found it wasn’t as precise). To rotate the piece, use the bottom face button or hit up on the D-pad, and to use a power-up, hit the top face button. There are three different types of items available: Paint (two available), where you paint a stripe on your block that, when cleared, shoots electricity vertically or horizontally, destroying blocks in its path; Swap (two available), which lets you change the colour of one individual square; and Bomb (one available), which detonates to destroy nine blocks. When you use items, it takes a while to replenish them: they aren’t filled automatically in the next stage, so it’ll take some grinding to refill your stock.
In Arcade Mode, each stage has a different objective to complete, and the amount of time given depends on how difficult the mission is. For example, you might have one minute and 34 seconds to clear 30 blocks of each colour. For a larger amount, like 40 of both colours, you might have two minutes and two seconds. If you run out of time, you’ll have to retry the challenge. If you fail, the game shows how many objectives you cleared before time ran out.
On one attempt, I cleared every green block, but I still had five blue blocks left to go.
You first start with Mystic Sphere as the only stage available, but as you play, you'll unlock up to 50 others, each with its own challenge. As you complete stages, the difficulty increases, and you unlock additional levels with different themes including: mountains, oceans, cosmic voids, pretty much anything you can imagine is here.
The visuals are beautiful. The backgrounds are colourful and feature great-looking elements like shooting stars and manta rays flying around the stage. However, these additional graphics can become distracting, especially when they fly directly behind the block you’re trying to place. With so much happening at once, it can feel overwhelming and hard to keep track of your block.
When you're tired of completing stages, you can try Challenge Mode, where you see how long you can survive and how high of a score you can get. When defeated, your score will be placed on the leaderboard so you can compare your performance to other players and previous attempts. It’s always nice to see your name higher on the list than expected!
The main game menu of Puzzle Dazzle greets players with upbeat electronic dance music and vibrant, colourful art. Every stage has a different song playing (the artist is listed in the bottom corner). The music creates an atmosphere similar to Tetris Effect: Connected. If you like this style, you’ll be happy. If not, it may feel tedious, though there is an option to turn it off if you find it irritating or dislike it.
One of my main issues with the game is the lack of accessibility options. Puzzle Dazzle does not support colour-blind-friendly settings, which means players who are colour-blind will likely have a hard time. Even I struggled at times to distinguish between certain colours — like light mint green and lighter blue. The brightness felt too high, making similar colours hard to tell apart.
Puzzle Dazzle is a unique puzzle game that focuses more on grouping coloured blocks than clearing lines. I found it to be quite challenging, especially when racing against the clock to clear the required amount of each colour per stage. The controls work well, but the colours chosen for each small block can be too similar at times, making it difficult to differentiate them. Without accessibility options, this title will be very difficult for players with colour vision issues — especially when quick reaction time is required in Arcade Mode.
Puzzle Dazzle (Reviewed on Windows)
Game is enjoyable, outweighing the issues there may be.
Puzzle Dazzle is a unique type of puzzle game, but with no accessibility options and similar colours, it’s hard to tell them apart!
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