Tumblestone – Review

Tumblestone is an action packed puzzle game brought to us by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild. Either take on the story mode where you have to fire away at the Tumbleblocks that are in your way or take on friends in local and online multiplayer.

The game opens up as if you were playing Tetris but with a gun to shoot the blocks. The aim is to shoot three of the same colour… simple right. Well yes, it is simple at the start but as you progress it gets harder and the puzzle unfolds. You have to plan your route which at times can be a pain as you may be getting somewhere and bang road block. To make this game better but it would also make it easy is a reverse button to go back a few moves…instead you can either press B to reset to the beginning or make an error and start again, if you reset it doesn’t blemish your score but if you make an error like shot two Yellow blocks and then a Green one then not only do you start again but you lose the bonus you get at the end of the level.

Controls are very easy A is shoot, B is reset, LT and RT allow you to quick step to the edges of the level and either the D-Pad or LS moves the player. The guide in the game is straight so you can bounce of walls like you can in Puzzle Bobble but the game does play like that. It is fairly one dimensional but the further you go can really get your brain going.

The sounds are pretty linear they range from block breaking to soft Egyptian background music that actually didn’t bother me. The game visually is really basic but it doesn’t need to be any better than it is to be fair. Cartoon graphics in the cutscenes fit it all together nicely, the dialogue could do with a bit of an uplift. Like there is corny stories everywhere but this is just stupid…she is craving a Salad but Tumblestones are taking over her kingdom…”I must destroy these as my craving for croutons is overtaking me????” like really come on man?

Online is chaotic and can be up to 4 players, you have levels where the first to reach the max is the winner, you can also purchase for an extra £3.99 the other offline modes which are a slight rip off if you ask me. The game is £15.99 and an extra £3.99 you get more OFFLINE modes…normally developers charge you for online features. Really naughty if you ask me. The game doesn’t even warrant a markup price of £15.99.

Tumblestone was reviewed on the Xbox One but is also available on Steam, Windows, Mac, PS4, and WiiU.

Big thanks to Xbox for supplying the code as well.