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IGN Review of Trioncube
Though Tetris will always remain the king of the tile-flipping puzzle games, many of the successful games in the genre have one item in common: combos. Or rather, a mechanic that benefits the player in learning how to not just figure out the combo system, but how to keep it going. Puyo Pop, Super Puzzle Fighter II, Meteos...nothing's more thrilling watching tiles disappear, shift and realign only to have them trigger another match-up to keep the points going. Trioncube's revolves around the concept so strongly that it's almost impossible to play this game without triggering the combos like a champ. It's having your cake and eating it...but then getting totally full and sick of cake since you're eating so much of it. But at least it's tasty enough cake to try in short bites.
Take the idea of Tetris' "falling and rotating piece" concept and change things up to where you have to form 3x3 square grids instead of a full line, and that's pretty much what Trioncube is. By shifting different variations of descending three-square pieces and stacking them at the bottom of the bin, they'll disappear if they form a larger square. The hook is, that after this grid is activated, you have a short period of time to expand that grid with combos by stacking more tiles to form more 3x3 piles. Once the combo ends by either a piece not keeping the string going or the combo simply timing-out, all the squares involved in the combo string will disappear with the rest settling back into the bin.
Trioncube is not a very challenging solitaire experience. The simple combo concept is easy to trigger and easy to manipulate, and the initial arcade mode will end without a hitch. The "adventure mode" increases in difficulty thanks to puzzle pieces that force gaps into the stack, but even these harder tiles don't stand a chance to the power of the Trioncube combo. The design is a stronger two-player experience since both players are competing to form combos faster and larger than the other. Luckily Trioncube supports the Download Play function of the Nintendo DS so that the competitive mode can be enjoyed almost immediately.
The game takes a page from another Namco design, Katamari Damacy, in a presentation that wouldn't do the word justice if you said "bizarre." Trioncube never takes itself seriously, and that's one of the strengths of the product -- there's no license holding the game together, just a whacked out story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense and never tries to. Players will just have to go with the flow when the bad guy proclaims how much he loves ironing, or when his last date was. As silly as these transitions are, it's hard not to crack a smile when you get some words of "advice" between challenges.
Even the collectibles are among the weird and unnecessary, but it's kind of cool having the ability to change the tiles or sound effects using coins collected in the puzzle game to purchase these extras. It's at least something to shoot for in single player, but because of the game's way-easy-to-grasp strategy these items aren't difficult to obtain.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Take the idea of Tetris' "falling and rotating piece" concept and change things up to where you have to form 3x3 square grids instead of a full line, and that's pretty much what Trioncube is. By shifting different variations of descending three-square pieces and stacking them at the bottom of the bin, they'll disappear if they form a larger square. The hook is, that after this grid is activated, you have a short period of time to expand that grid with combos by stacking more tiles to form more 3x3 piles. Once the combo ends by either a piece not keeping the string going or the combo simply timing-out, all the squares involved in the combo string will disappear with the rest settling back into the bin.
Trioncube is not a very challenging solitaire experience. The simple combo concept is easy to trigger and easy to manipulate, and the initial arcade mode will end without a hitch. The "adventure mode" increases in difficulty thanks to puzzle pieces that force gaps into the stack, but even these harder tiles don't stand a chance to the power of the Trioncube combo. The design is a stronger two-player experience since both players are competing to form combos faster and larger than the other. Luckily Trioncube supports the Download Play function of the Nintendo DS so that the competitive mode can be enjoyed almost immediately.
The game takes a page from another Namco design, Katamari Damacy, in a presentation that wouldn't do the word justice if you said "bizarre." Trioncube never takes itself seriously, and that's one of the strengths of the product -- there's no license holding the game together, just a whacked out story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense and never tries to. Players will just have to go with the flow when the bad guy proclaims how much he loves ironing, or when his last date was. As silly as these transitions are, it's hard not to crack a smile when you get some words of "advice" between challenges.
Even the collectibles are among the weird and unnecessary, but it's kind of cool having the ability to change the tiles or sound effects using coins collected in the puzzle game to purchase these extras. It's at least something to shoot for in single player, but because of the game's way-easy-to-grasp strategy these items aren't difficult to obtain.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved