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Chime Super Deluxe Review
I’ve always been interested in musically driven games, so upon hearing the concept of Chime Super Deluxe, I was coloured interested, and finally indulged this interest when it came up on sale for Playstation Plus users.
For those who aren’t familiar with Chime, Super Deluxe is a “sequel” to the original Chime, which was very similar in concept (actually, fairly identical), but was released as a game with proceeds going to charity under publisher One Big Game. Super Deluxe is a non-charity version of the game that seeks to remove the bugs, niggles and issues plaguing the original, whilst also increasing the size of the game.
So, imagine, if you will, Tetris in two dimensions. In its gameplay, Chime is essentially that. I hear you cry: “Tetris is already two dimensional, you muppet!”, but I didn’t claim it to be in the same two dimensions. Herein lies the difference.
Chime is a puzzle game where you place “tetris” pieces on a variety of different boards to form rectangular shapes of 3x3 blocks or more to form “quads”. Quads are active for a certain period of time before disappearing and covering the board. The aim of the game is to fully cover the board that is given to you, and to cover as many boards as you can in the time limit. Once a board is complete, you will receive a new board that is slightly different, but makes completing it that much harder.
Doing this gives you points, and doing it often increases the multiplier for the amount of points you receive. Huge multiplier and time bonuses are given for perfect quads, the formation of a quad without leaving a single block of the constituent pieces from being out of it. Leaving a piece outside of a quad will leave it to decay over time, in which if it is not turned into a quad, will clear the board of fragments and break the multiplier.
As a general concept, it sounds fairly dull and uninspired, but there is more to it. Any quads that are created directly influence the background music, so the better a player does; the more of a complete sound is obtained. The quality, however, is almost horizontally excellent from start to finish.
Chime Super Deluxe may have a slightly shorter list of songs than you may expect from a game that is dependant on its music (10 overall), but each song fits the game perfectly, from the melancholic For Silence to the upbeat Play With You, each song is a different experience, with different boards and even different pieces available dependant on which song is chosen.
When it comes to modes, Chime Super Deluxe is fairly light. For single players, there is an option of timed, which is split into three “difficulties” of 9, 6 and 3 minute versions, choosing how much time you get to attempt to gain high scores and complete the songs. There is also free mode which doesn’t keep scores and allows you to attempt to get through the song at your own pace and skill, a sort of practice or “endless” mode.
Playing with others comes in two forms, also. Co-op mode allows you to tackle the timed modes with a friend (or 3) in attempt to get a high combined score, and works exactly like the single player mode, except with more players laying down pieces. There is also a versus mode, which has both players laying down pieces on the same board, attempting to gain as much coverage as possible. This allows you to steal opponent’s pieces to get quads, and to make quads over opponent covered areas to remove it. Versus can be quite fun and tactical, but pales in comparison to the experiences available on timed.
Overall, a fairly fun and quite addictive puzzle game that can pay great homage to it’s soundtrack for making it that way; one that can brag the ability to be both a relaxing and frustrating experience simultaneously. The local multiplayer is fairly well done, and whilst the game may suffer slightly from a lack of online multiplayer, the concept behind the game can explain its exclusion.
Overall: 7.6/10
I suppose a better analogy would be Tetris crossed with Scrabble…
I’ve always been interested in musically driven games, so upon hearing the concept of Chime Super Deluxe, I was coloured interested, and finally indulged this interest when it came up on sale for Playstation Plus users.
For those who aren’t familiar with Chime, Super Deluxe is a “sequel” to the original Chime, which was very similar in concept (actually, fairly identical), but was released as a game with proceeds going to charity under publisher One Big Game. Super Deluxe is a non-charity version of the game that seeks to remove the bugs, niggles and issues plaguing the original, whilst also increasing the size of the game.
So, imagine, if you will, Tetris in two dimensions. In its gameplay, Chime is essentially that. I hear you cry: “Tetris is already two dimensional, you muppet!”, but I didn’t claim it to be in the same two dimensions. Herein lies the difference.
Chime is a puzzle game where you place “tetris” pieces on a variety of different boards to form rectangular shapes of 3x3 blocks or more to form “quads”. Quads are active for a certain period of time before disappearing and covering the board. The aim of the game is to fully cover the board that is given to you, and to cover as many boards as you can in the time limit. Once a board is complete, you will receive a new board that is slightly different, but makes completing it that much harder.
Doing this gives you points, and doing it often increases the multiplier for the amount of points you receive. Huge multiplier and time bonuses are given for perfect quads, the formation of a quad without leaving a single block of the constituent pieces from being out of it. Leaving a piece outside of a quad will leave it to decay over time, in which if it is not turned into a quad, will clear the board of fragments and break the multiplier.
As a general concept, it sounds fairly dull and uninspired, but there is more to it. Any quads that are created directly influence the background music, so the better a player does; the more of a complete sound is obtained. The quality, however, is almost horizontally excellent from start to finish.
Chime Super Deluxe may have a slightly shorter list of songs than you may expect from a game that is dependant on its music (10 overall), but each song fits the game perfectly, from the melancholic For Silence to the upbeat Play With You, each song is a different experience, with different boards and even different pieces available dependant on which song is chosen.
When it comes to modes, Chime Super Deluxe is fairly light. For single players, there is an option of timed, which is split into three “difficulties” of 9, 6 and 3 minute versions, choosing how much time you get to attempt to gain high scores and complete the songs. There is also free mode which doesn’t keep scores and allows you to attempt to get through the song at your own pace and skill, a sort of practice or “endless” mode.
Playing with others comes in two forms, also. Co-op mode allows you to tackle the timed modes with a friend (or 3) in attempt to get a high combined score, and works exactly like the single player mode, except with more players laying down pieces. There is also a versus mode, which has both players laying down pieces on the same board, attempting to gain as much coverage as possible. This allows you to steal opponent’s pieces to get quads, and to make quads over opponent covered areas to remove it. Versus can be quite fun and tactical, but pales in comparison to the experiences available on timed.
Overall, a fairly fun and quite addictive puzzle game that can pay great homage to it’s soundtrack for making it that way; one that can brag the ability to be both a relaxing and frustrating experience simultaneously. The local multiplayer is fairly well done, and whilst the game may suffer slightly from a lack of online multiplayer, the concept behind the game can explain its exclusion.
Overall: 7.6/10
I suppose a better analogy would be Tetris crossed with Scrabble…
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Chime Super Deluxe Review
I’ve always been interested in musically driven games, so upon hearing the concept of Chime Super Deluxe, I was coloured interested, and finally indulged this interest when it came up on sale for Playstation Plus users.
For those who aren’t familiar with Chime, Super Deluxe is a “sequel” to the original Chime, which was very similar in concept (actually, fairly identical), but was released as a game with proceeds going to charity under publisher One Big Game. Super Deluxe is a non-charity version of the game that seeks to remove the bugs, niggles and issues plaguing the original, whilst also increasing the size of the game.
So, imagine, if you will, Tetris in two dimensions. In its gameplay, Chime is essentially that. I hear you cry: “Tetris is already two dimensional, you muppet!”, but I didn’t claim it to be in the same two dimensions. Herein lies the difference.
Chime is a puzzle game where you place “tetris” pieces on a variety of different boards to form rectangular shapes of 3x3 blocks or more to form “quads”. Quads are active for a certain period of time before disappearing and covering the board. The aim of the game is to fully cover the board that is given to you, and to cover as many boards as you can in the time limit. Once a board is complete, you will receive a new board that is slightly different, but makes completing it that much harder.
Doing this gives you points, and doing it often increases the multiplier for the amount of points you receive. Huge multiplier and time bonuses are given for perfect quads, the formation of a quad without leaving a single block of the constituent pieces from being out of it. Leaving a piece outside of a quad will leave it to decay over time, in which if it is not turned into a quad, will clear the board of fragments and break the multiplier.
As a general concept, it sounds fairly dull and uninspired, but there is more to it. Any quads that are created directly influence the background music, so the better a player does; the more of a complete sound is obtained. The quality, however, is almost horizontally excellent from start to finish.
Chime Super Deluxe may have a slightly shorter list of songs than you may expect from a game that is dependant on its music (10 overall), but each song fits the game perfectly, from the melancholic For Silence to the upbeat Play With You, each song is a different experience, with different boards and even different pieces available dependant on which song is chosen.
When it comes to modes, Chime Super Deluxe is fairly light. For single players, there is an option of timed, which is split into three “difficulties” of 9, 6 and 3 minute versions, choosing how much time you get to attempt to gain high scores and complete the songs. There is also free mode which doesn’t keep scores and allows you to attempt to get through the song at your own pace and skill, a sort of practice or “endless” mode.
Playing with others comes in two forms, also. Co-op mode allows you to tackle the timed modes with a friend (or 3) in attempt to get a high combined score, and works exactly like the single player mode, except with more players laying down pieces. There is also a versus mode, which has both players laying down pieces on the same board, attempting to gain as much coverage as possible. This allows you to steal opponent’s pieces to get quads, and to make quads over opponent covered areas to remove it. Versus can be quite fun and tactical, but pales in comparison to the experiences available on timed.
Overall, a fairly fun and quite addictive puzzle game that can pay great homage to it’s soundtrack for making it that way; one that can brag the ability to be both a relaxing and frustrating experience simultaneously. The local multiplayer is fairly well done, and whilst the game may suffer slightly from a lack of online multiplayer, the concept behind the game can explain its exclusion.
Overall: 7.6/10
I suppose a better analogy would be Tetris crossed with Scrabble…
I’ve always been interested in musically driven games, so upon hearing the concept of Chime Super Deluxe, I was coloured interested, and finally indulged this interest when it came up on sale for Playstation Plus users.
For those who aren’t familiar with Chime, Super Deluxe is a “sequel” to the original Chime, which was very similar in concept (actually, fairly identical), but was released as a game with proceeds going to charity under publisher One Big Game. Super Deluxe is a non-charity version of the game that seeks to remove the bugs, niggles and issues plaguing the original, whilst also increasing the size of the game.
So, imagine, if you will, Tetris in two dimensions. In its gameplay, Chime is essentially that. I hear you cry: “Tetris is already two dimensional, you muppet!”, but I didn’t claim it to be in the same two dimensions. Herein lies the difference.
Chime is a puzzle game where you place “tetris” pieces on a variety of different boards to form rectangular shapes of 3x3 blocks or more to form “quads”. Quads are active for a certain period of time before disappearing and covering the board. The aim of the game is to fully cover the board that is given to you, and to cover as many boards as you can in the time limit. Once a board is complete, you will receive a new board that is slightly different, but makes completing it that much harder.
Doing this gives you points, and doing it often increases the multiplier for the amount of points you receive. Huge multiplier and time bonuses are given for perfect quads, the formation of a quad without leaving a single block of the constituent pieces from being out of it. Leaving a piece outside of a quad will leave it to decay over time, in which if it is not turned into a quad, will clear the board of fragments and break the multiplier.
As a general concept, it sounds fairly dull and uninspired, but there is more to it. Any quads that are created directly influence the background music, so the better a player does; the more of a complete sound is obtained. The quality, however, is almost horizontally excellent from start to finish.
Chime Super Deluxe may have a slightly shorter list of songs than you may expect from a game that is dependant on its music (10 overall), but each song fits the game perfectly, from the melancholic For Silence to the upbeat Play With You, each song is a different experience, with different boards and even different pieces available dependant on which song is chosen.
When it comes to modes, Chime Super Deluxe is fairly light. For single players, there is an option of timed, which is split into three “difficulties” of 9, 6 and 3 minute versions, choosing how much time you get to attempt to gain high scores and complete the songs. There is also free mode which doesn’t keep scores and allows you to attempt to get through the song at your own pace and skill, a sort of practice or “endless” mode.
Playing with others comes in two forms, also. Co-op mode allows you to tackle the timed modes with a friend (or 3) in attempt to get a high combined score, and works exactly like the single player mode, except with more players laying down pieces. There is also a versus mode, which has both players laying down pieces on the same board, attempting to gain as much coverage as possible. This allows you to steal opponent’s pieces to get quads, and to make quads over opponent covered areas to remove it. Versus can be quite fun and tactical, but pales in comparison to the experiences available on timed.
Overall, a fairly fun and quite addictive puzzle game that can pay great homage to it’s soundtrack for making it that way; one that can brag the ability to be both a relaxing and frustrating experience simultaneously. The local multiplayer is fairly well done, and whilst the game may suffer slightly from a lack of online multiplayer, the concept behind the game can explain its exclusion.
Overall: 7.6/10
I suppose a better analogy would be Tetris crossed with Scrabble…