The recipe is there, now it just needs some content
A few years ago, when Watch Yo-kai The craze continues, Level-5 has launched a puzzle game on mobile devices. This game quickly became my go-to for lunch breaks and train rides. It is called Yo-kai Watch Wibble Wobble and it’s awesome, fun, and full of annoying free-to-play mechanics. But the game was so good, I didn’t care. I just kept playing until the English version of the game stopped working in May 2018. Since then, I’ve been chasing that. Wibble Wobble high, looking for other games where i can ride a dragon. Some has come closebut nothing I’ve found so far has been quite sensational Wibble Wobble bring to the table. That’s the truth of Devolver Tumble Time well, though it tries to make its own unique mark in this crowded mobile space.
From developer Nopopo, Devolver Tumble Time is a simple connect three puzzle game that requires quick and responsive operation if you want to get a high score. The puzzle field has a circle and pieces, each designed after a character in the Devolver Digital title, fall from the top in a random pattern. To remove these pieces from the field, simply tap a piece that is connected to at least two other pieces of the same type. If 5 puzzle pieces can be connected, all 5 pieces will be clear when you lift your finger. The more pieces you can connect, the more likely you are to score a bomb that you can use to release some small debris. Bombs not only help you if you can’t make any connections, but also help build your Fever Time clock quickly.
In Fever Time, the clock stops and you’re encouraged to clear as many pieces as you can in a short amount of time to really raise your score. If you’re running well, you’ll probably trigger Fever Time about three or four times before the clock hits 0. Depending on the arrays you’re working with, regularly hitting Fever Time can turn into a good run. into a superiority.
When you play Messy time, you will earn coins to unlock characters using gacha pull. These characters correspond to pieces in each puzzle run, and if you own a character, you level them up if they appear in a puzzle. Of the characters you’ve unlocked, you’ll choose one as the main puzzle piece that will appear in each puzzle run where you’ve chosen them. When you remove this character from the puzzle, you will accumulate a meter that, when full, will allow you to unleash their special. Each special removes pieces from the board, but the effect of that removal depends on the character you selected and the pieces currently on the board.
For example, Red from Heave Flowers will turn all the Red Devils on the screen into socks, a currency that I’ll touch on in a moment. Richard from Hotline Miami will throw a bloody baseball bat across the screen, wiping out any pieces it hits. Duck from Minit will remove all other Ducks from the screen and make them seconds on the clock. My personal favorite is Gris from Griswho will drop a big gray bomb capable of clearing the entire puzzle field.
Knowing when and how to make the best use of these specials is key to getting a good score. For example, Richard’s baseball bat is highly effective at raising your score if you use it in Fever Time. However, if the clock is slowing down and you can see Fever Time just within reach, using it at that point may just be enough to get you into Fever Time, again, stopping the clock and allows you to actually add to your score.
When it comes to making connections, it can be a bit daunting. A bunch of pieces of the same type grouped together would obviously be no problem. However, sometimes you’ll see the pieces are close enough together without getting in the way that you think would be an easy connection, only the game won’t see it the same way. On the other hand, there were many times when I pressed down on a piece and watched the game quickly connect a web of pieces that I didn’t think would work.
Extended connections like these may only be available for a split second. As the pieces fall they can make a connection while falling which will disappear as they land on other pieces below. You really have to be fast to make those connections, but you don’t want to be too fast because the connection isn’t instantaneous. Although it takes less than a second, each extensive connection must be fully mapped if you want to remove all sections. Lift your finger too quickly and some pieces may be left behind.
As I said before, if you build a big enough connection, you will create a bomb on the puzzle field. There are different types of bombs depending on how many pieces you clear, including bombs that can add a few seconds to the clock. When you use bombs, some of the pieces you clear will be converted into coins, which is the main currency of Tumble Time. Other things can be turned into items, such as socks, donuts, diamonds, gears, and apples. They represent the secondary currency of Messy time. Both coins and assets are used to unlock new characters, but coins will only unlock characters with rarity A, B, or C in what’s known as Trash Pulls. Content used with premium gacha scissors can land you an S, A, or B rated character. There is another gacha system coming to the game, but it doesn’t specify what you will drag. with it. I doubt it will give players a real boost and boost to each puzzle run as each of those menus is currently listed as “coming soon”.
If you are wondering about making money, this is quite simple. The game has a heart system that you can remove for $3. You can also earn more hearts by watching ads and extra note, has anyone else noticed how bad mobile advertising has gotten over the last year or so? Anyway, if you want to buy coins or tools to pull the gacha, that option is also available with the largest purchase available at $5. I don’t imagine I’m going to shell out money for coins or something, but getting rid of the heart rate monitor so I can play as much as I want is a bit of a hit. It would be a lot more attractive if there were more things to do in the game.
Currently, there are only two modes to experience. Standard mode lets you both chase a high score while working to clear as many pieces as you can in 60 seconds. Alternatively, you can play the daily mode, which restricts you to a specific character (even if you don’t own them) or challenges you to a boss battle. Boss battles require players to perform a task of scoring a certain number of points over four rounds before fighting a boss. If you do not reach the target score in any round, you have to start the whole process over. With the right character, like Gris, this is a piece of cake. If you are using someone from Heave FlowersGetting a score of 80,000 can be a bit difficult.
Having to start from scratch with boss battles is annoying, but I wish there were more modes like this in Messy time. I’ve been playing for about three weeks now and enjoy it a lot. But without some regular challenges, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in the game. I like its style, and it’s definitely replayable, but I’m not a fan of high scores. It would be great to see some sort of adventure mode or mission mode added to the final game when it exits Early Access later this year.
CJ Andriessen
Just what the Internet needed: another white guy writing about video games.
