Game: Chime
Publisher: One Big Game
Developer: Zoë Mode
Genre: Puzzle
Pro: Relaxing play style, Great Music, nice twist on the usual Tetris/Lumines style puzzle, Charity = Good feeling
Con: Not much meat, takes a bit to get used to
How often do you get to purchase a game AND get to feel good about the money you spent? Not very often, I am guessing. Fortunately, with Chime you can slap down your money and know that you are actually paying for something good. For the 400msp (or$5) that will you spend for this game, you are also helping less fortunate children around the world. As One Big Game’s motto goes, “Play, so others can.” You can not only feel good about spending the $5 for the game, but you have an excuse to tell your significant other/parent/guardian that you aren’t just buying a game, you are giving to charity. It’s really a win win situation.
So, what are you getting for your charitable donation of $5? For one, you are getting a new and interesting spin on the time-tested Tetris/Lumines formula. Chime is a block puzzle game, to be sure, but not what you may be used to. It combines just about every relative puzzler out there and meshes them into a very relaxing time in front of your TV. As the description for Chime goes, “Place blocks, build quads, get coverage, make music” and it’s really just that simple.
The gameplay board is mostly set up like any other puzzler, consisting of a wide open grid, ready for you to drop your block and make “quads.” There are many different pieces of varying length and shapes for you to fill the space. Right off the bat the first thing you may notice is that pieces don’t “drop” in the style of Tetris or Lumines. You can hold a piece in one spot indefinitely, then take your time and think out your course of action. Once blocks are placed on the board, you will notice that as the “beat line” (a la Lumines) passes over the block you just placed, it plays a certain musical riff. For each block you place, you get more and more music. As you build your blocks into quads, you will also be building a song. The more the board is covered the more the songs really start to come alive and it’s almost as though you literally are making the music.
Speaking of Music, all of the songs contained in the game from artists Moby, Philip Glass, Paul Hartnoll, and Fred Deakin. Every track was donated toward this very worthy cause. Everything about this game is charitable. The soundtrack is very mellow and creates more of a feeling of relaxation than the usual tension found in other puzzle games.
The thing that took me the longest to get used to was the fact that once your “quads” are built and the beat line sweeps them away so to speak, you can place more blocks in the same place. For example, a beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, playing different musical riffs as it goes. Quads are created by laying pieces in blocks of 3×3 or more. When a quad is completed and the beat line passes over it, different musical samples are played depending on the quads shape. The bigger the quad, the higher the score, with multipliers being achieved by having several quads on the screen at once. Once the beatline passes over a completed quad, it is swept away, leaving only a kind of shadow on the grid, and earning the player coverage. This took a second for me to grasp, as I kept trying not to get blocks in the same places, thinking that would some how end my game. Once I grasped the fact that it didn’t matter, I really was able to get the point of the game. It’s all about coverage. You need to make as many quads as possible, in order to cover the board. The more coverage, the more points, and really the only way to move along in the game from stage to stage.
There are two different game modes that are both fairly self explanatory: a “Timed Mode” and “Free Mode.” The only way to unlock the different levels/songs in Free Mode is to complete the challenge in Timed Mode. Not all that hard of a task really, which is kinda nice considering how some puzzle games (and other game types for that matter) have a way of being stingy with their unlocks.
All in all, the game is a little light on the content, but given the fact it’s for a good cause, I think it can be easily overlooked. Should the developer support this game for a while, it would be very easy to keep offering DLC. All you would really need is couple a songs, maybe a few new backgrounds. It really wouldn’t be all that hard. I for one, hope they keep them coming. I enjoy playing this game simply because in “Free Mode” there is no pressure, just sit back and enjoy the game on your own time. Not many games out there offer that kind of interaction.
Popularity: unranked [?]
