shibuya Review
PROS
- Unique matching gameplay style.
- Multiple difficulty levels.
- Plenty of achievements to work towards.
CONS
- Neat visuals, but it does get bland after a while.
- No major differences between Quick and Endless modes.
VERDICT
'shibuya' is a neat new concept that tickles the brain in to thinking in new ways for bigger and better matches, but once you've come to grips with it the game can start to feel a bit sparse.
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Some games are downright devious in their attempts to keep players addicted to their games and Nevercenter, the creators of 'shibuya', have crafted their arcade puzzler with these cunning traps in mind.
The basic gameplay is amazingly unique and can take some time to wrap your head around and this is the first trap the sinks its claws in to you. Players need to line up two or more of the same colors to clear them off the board, however colors are given in a random order and can be manually slotted in to empty blocks that slowly fill up the screen. The usual bonuses are assigned for combos, large matches and clearing the board, but this is no easy task as you need to consider placement of the current color against those that need to be filled which means you're essentially playing the game 'in the future'.
Like I said, it's a weird concept to wrap your head around, but Nevercenter have included a handy 'checklist' of achievements to conquer on your way to mastering this game, which is the second deadly hook to sink in. Lastly, the game gets away with an amazingly simple visual style and while more themes or a changing background would be nice it would just be more clutter on an otherwise lean colorful style.
Once you're comfortable with the basic concepts there's not much other than the achievements to add more value to the gameplay, but it's an easy game to come back to time and again, making 'shibuya' a great bargain for arcade puzzle fans.
Screenshots
$0.99
