Ever want to just sit and game?
Tap your feet and bob your head?
Even though you may look lame?
Then this review is where to tread,
Plastic Dreams on the tenth of December,
Are releasing an app, Bebop Puzzle Beat,
It’s a musical game where you chase a kidnapper,
It’s mental and crazy, are you in for a treat,
Imma stop the lyrical review,
Or it’ll take me too long to do,
Here we go, back to standard review protocol. The newest game to hit the app store is a jazz-inspired, funky beatfest that will get your foot tapping like it’s 1940 again, whilst at the same time wearing your finger to the bone from similarly insane tapping.
The story is your generic – princess gets kidnapped, so her friends have to go Liam Neeson on the kidnapper’s ass – but, all of this in a puzzle solving form. Running through the dark, moody streets completing up to 120 puzzles throughout 6 different environments, with a kick-ass original soundtrack that will get you in a jazzy mood as you match coloured tiles up with each other whilst using other, power-up, tiles to aid you in your quest to get perfection in each puzzle.
The artwork looks really pretty, it’s smooth & colourful, but also moody. Like a smooth, high quality 32bit set up. Within the puzzles everything manages to be vibrant, and compelling, yet it does so while remaining easy on the eye… everything but the text, which seems to be a touch too small for devices on the iPhone 5s and under.
As for the actual gameplay, it’s fast, furious, and each puzzle has different objectives. One puzzle could be, “Match 20 red tiles in 90 seconds”, and the next could be, “Get 10000 points in 1 minute”. Don’t think it’s just a walk in the park though, like I did for the first few levels; until I got to the levels where the playing field rotates as you play, making selecting your tiles harder.
As the levels progressed the rotating got faster, and it does eventually become so fast it’s impossible to carefully and tactically select – instead the only option is to just tap crazily until the board stops while it eliminates any matched tiles. During this fleeting moment match as many as you can…quickly. When it goes fast there’s an option to slow time by holding the screen, but it still doesn’t give you time to aim your poke.
Each of the 12 different tiles have their own notes that ring out when eliminated, which makes creating a matching pattern all the more satisfying, although when you match more than, let’s say 6, the note become repetitive and the catchy melody isn’t as catchy, moreso irritating. Plastic Dreams could – and hopefully will have, after an update – have added a few more variations of each note so it creates a melody.
Thankfully the soundtrack is catchy, jazzy, and up-beat. But, frankly why make a game based around music if you’re going to have a crap soundtrack? It’s is really good though, and I’d gladly leave the level select screen open and just chill to the OST.
If you’re a fan of that “Bejeweled” game, or even that traditional table-top card game, “Snap”, then you’ll enjoy this game. There’s no faffing around before jumping into the next puzzle, it’s quick, action-packed, and challenging. The challenge is well balanced however, and I never felt it ramp up so high that I rage quit. The balance itself is actually nearly perfect… unless you’re like me and have stubby fingers.
