Review – Droplitz (XBLA)

“Turn Dials.  Make paths.  Save Droplitz.  Try to survive!”

Droplitz is the newest from Blitz Arcade, the developer who brought us Powerup Forever.  It’s a heart-stopping adventure, where we get to save the last of the proud Droplitz race from certain doom!  Woosh!  Pow!  Do you have what it takes?!

Okay, it’s an abstract puzzle game.  Rotate pieces to create paths that direct the Droplitz to a goal.  When all the purple Droplitz reach the goals, pieces on the path are removed and replaced, with unused pieces dropping down and the game speeding up.  Do all of this quickly enough to keep recycling regular Droplitz back into the game.  Let too many of them get lost in dead ends, and it’s game over.

It’s pretty standard puzzling fare.  Plays a little like a cross between Puzzle Pirates‘ Alchemy, and the classic Pipe Mania.  The game comes with four modes:  Classic, Zendurance Challenge, Power Up and Infection.

The Droplitz are not a fancy bunch.  The playfield is simple, based around one of nine themes.  The background changes colour, there’s a couple icons that shift a bit, but this isn’t Lumines.  For music, there’s inoffensive, non-descript electronic stuff going on.  It builds now and again and varies with the theme, but there’s no glowsticks and garish clothing here.  There’s a column of grey Droplitz down the left side of the playfield.  These are the lives or time left, but the game never draws attention to it.  No blinking colour, no change in the music.  Droplitz may just be too polite to mention their imminent demise.

At first, the game seems exceptionally difficult.  On my first game I managed a handful of paths before the game informed me I lost.  I felt terrible.  All those Droplitz, let down by my inferior puzzling skills.  I had to avenge them.  I would not give up.  Droplitz is one of the most addictive puzzle games I’ve ever played.  Something about the game just clicked for me.  “Just one more game” definitely applies.  It took a couple rounds, but I was zooming around, making long, branched paths, racking up what I thought were impressive scores.

This is where the game stumbles, slightly.  Upon purchasing the game, there’s one mode to play, and one board to choose.  Get a good enough score on that one board and the two next to it unlock.  Get a good enough score on Classic mode and Zendurance will unlock, and so on.

It’s good to have things to aim for.  Droplitz aspire to be in the goal, after all.  Something that needs to be earned in a game is something that’ll keep me coming back.  But locking three-quarters of the game’s main modes, and requiring certain scores to even try them out?  Not cool.  I still haven’t had a chance to try the Infection mode.  And I probably won’t for a good while, as it requires 350,000 points to be scored in Power Up mode, with my current record being just over 110,000.

And now we’re at the second stumble:  I don’t really feel all that bad about not having played Infection.  Zendurance mode plays like Classic on the 7×6 board, but the game is locked to one theme and never speeds up.  Power Up mode is the same as Classic, but with three power ups that occasionally show up.  They’re just not all that different.

That’s okay, though.  The core gameplay is so enjoyable, I don’t really mind.  There’s a real emphasis on trying to be one step ahead, thinking about the consequences of each turn.  Sometimes it’s better to hold a path back, let the current one finish being scored and make a quick swap to keep the multiplier going.  This seems the real key to scoring well.

I played the Xbox LIVE Arcade release, but I understand the game will be made available on the PlayStation Network the same week, and the PC and iPhone platform at some point in the future.  I don’t know if all platforms will have this feature, but one of the achievements on my version is to play a game that lasts two hours.  Ouch.  Really?

Little dull grey Droplitz managed to draw me into their oddly addictive world.  Recommended for all puzzle game fans.