Publisher: http://www.atlus.com
Developer: Blitz Arcade
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: X-Box Live Arcade
Price: 800 Microsoft space-bucks.
Pros: Nice chill soundtrack and visuals.
Cons: Game modes are locked away and are difficult to earn. Quick game-overs.
Verdict: Not a casual game. Only for hardcore puzzle gamers with endless patience.
Puzzle Pedigree
The puzzle genre has it hard. It’s difficult to innovate when it’s demanded that you have to be simple. The goals usually involve matching objects of some sort, say, differently shaped bricks, before a lose-condition is met, for example, before the blocks stack up and reach the top of the play area. The matching of said objects provides the solution for the lose-condition, allowing the player to continue with the game.
There is a delicate balance of these two elements in puzzle games. The progression towards the lose-condition and the player’s ability to both comprehend and utilize the objects provided, create the solution to the problem. If the game is too difficult for the average player to solve within the limit provided, the average player will obviously not get very far. This would feel strict and punishing to the new player. It may not be a very rewarding experience for the casual gamer, if they looking for the simple pleasures of matching colored gems, without a time limit pressing the stress of imminent failure into their consciousness.
Failure Imminent
The lose-condition for this game is that the player runs out of a limited supply of the titular Droplitz. These Droplitz drip from a number of pipes at the top of the screen at regular intervals. The way that you stave off the eventually fated game-over is by rotating and lining up variously shaped pipe segments that are randomly placed on the field, in order to guide the droplets towards goal receptacles at the bottom of the play-field, which in turn, resupplies you with a certain amount of drops for the next time around. The used pipes are cleared and replaced with more random pipes. When a stray drop hits a dead end, it is lost immediately and your supply is diminished.
What all this means is, from the very start, you are on the road to failure. It’s as if you were playing Lemmings and they started dying at the beginning of a level. It would be up to you to figure out how to stop whatever is killing them before they’re all dead. The stress of losing is present from the moment you begin the game.
Emotional Response
How does one describe the feelings that are aroused when playing a puzzle game? They are meant to be a simple pleasure. If they’re not pleasurable, then they are simply aggravating. What simple emotions did I feel when playing Droplitz?
Anxiety, frustration and anger were quite prevalent.
These emotions seem out of place with the mood that Droplitz seems to want to conjure. The visuals are clean and simple and the audio is a soothing mix of various kinds of ambient melodies. At a glance, this game seems to want you to take it easy. It tells you to sit back, relax, and just chill out. That is something that I appreciate. I like a game that tries to calm me down.
Unfortunately, the stressful pace of the game itself cancels out any feeling of tranquility that the designers may have hoped to bring about in the player.
Gameplay Repression
Developers have a tendency to lock away key components of content in video games, tasking players with overcoming goals to earn parts of a product which they have already paid for. This is another difficult balancing act. A number of questions should be pondered when considering locking away content.
Which components would seem core to the game’s experience? Which seem like “extras”? What are the goals that need to be met to unlock said content? How difficult are these goals to the average gamer? If a player purchased this product and was unable to unlock certain components that may be considered “core” to the game’s experience, how would that player feel?
When Droplitz is purchased, there is only one standard mode to play. Three others are locked away by score conditions in each of the modes that proceed it. Clear a score amount in in the 1st mode to unlock the 2nd. Another amount in the 2nd for the 3rd, and so on. Scores required for each unlock seem absolutely staggering to the average player. Unless you are a puzzle-game expert or savant, you may not be allowed by the developers to experience much of this game.
Personal Experiences
As of the time of writing, I am stuck in the 2nd mode, Zendurance. The score to open up the 3rd mode is something like 150k, I haven’t been able to break 100k. Most times that I play it I can’t even earn 10k, getting a game over with just a few thousand points.
I would do well enough one time, then quickly receive a game-over the next time that I play. I feel like I’m throwing myself at a wall with this game. I’m not sure the effort of trying so many times would let me break through that wall or even if it would be worth the payoff for doing so. I would like to review the other game modes but, as it seems, I’m not a skilled enough player to be allowed to try them.
Another side of the coin
Even though I am not skilled enough to enjoy Droplitz, this does not mean that nobody else would or could like it. On various message boards there are gamers reporting their positive experiences and achievements with this game; they do not seem to have the same difficulties as I am. However, I do know that I am not alone with my frustration with this game. Other gamers are having similar difficulties with earning a high enough score to unlock the rest of the game.
Conclusion
While I am disappointed with many aspects of Droplitz, I do think that at its core it is a promising puzzle game that tries to emit a relaxing ambiance. I appreciate the sort of feeling that this game is attempting to evoke, but it clashes harshly with my frustrating failures in the Zendurance challenge. Although the aural and visual package is, in itself, rather “chill”, there is a constant pressure to work faster and more efficiently, which induces a feeling of stress into the game. If the developers re-visited Droplitz and smoothed out this difficulty into a gradual curve instead of a sheer cliff, I’m sure that this could be one of the next classic puzzle games.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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