Gematombe is a unique puzzle experience that combines the gameplay of two classics, Arkanoid and Puzzle Bobble. The game contains a parody of the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box, but changes some details to make it a reason to bring players to war to confront demons and save the world or vice versa. Through the puzzle aspect, of course, based on the two classic names just mentioned. Each choice of character “steers” the comic plot in a different direction.
Gameplay in Gematombe is simple but very exciting. The player must move the smasher to make the ball bounce into the blocks on the screen as many as possible in one stroke. Each time the ball hits six cubes with one hit, the character activates a special attack on the AI opponent or another player. The main goal is to “annoy” the opponent by activating the attack as much as possible, which requires a specific strategy from you. Whoever “takes down” the opponent first is the winner.
You can also beat your opponent by smashing all the blocks on the screen, but this is usually less likely due to the unique design. Notably, Gematombe has up to three difficulty settings when you’re playing against the AI. Although the game also has several different game modes, except for Survival, most of them do not differ in gameplay mechanics as well as replay value. Other modes including Arcade, Practice and Versus differ in terms of experience or who your opponent is.
Where Arcade is the main game mode in the Single-player part. If you find the Arcade experience with AI too challenging, you can practice playing on your own using Practice mode. Survival, as its name suggests, is a “play hard” mode with the AI increasing in difficulty and only selected when you or your opponent has been “crushed”. Versus is simply a combat experience for competition between two players. There is also a tutorial game mode that literally walks you through the basic gameplay mechanics.
Specifically, the basic tutorial only guides and encourages players to discover more gameplay mechanics during the game through the practice mode. The writer respects the direction of this developer, so he does not mention the obstacles that you will encounter in the game experience. From the player’s point of view, the biggest difference between Gematombe’s gameplay mechanics and the classic Arkanoid and Puzzle Bobble experiences is that you can catch a ball that falls to the ground to keep smashing, not lose.
However, in order for the ball to fall to the ground, it must also receive a similar level of penalty, that is, the appearance of a new series of blocks. But it is difficult to say whether this is a punishment or a reward, because depending on the sensitivity of each person, you can take advantage of it to defeat your opponent faster. This is the feeling of excitement in the game experience that the two classic titles mentioned above can rarely bring. The visual aspect of Gematombe contains a lot of nostalgic vibes along with the upbeat music.
The game’s graphics are reminiscent of classic games with similar gameplay from the 90s like Puzzle Fighter, not with modern, youthful colors like Puzzle Bobble Everybubble. From the colorful menus and slightly darker colors, to the simple movements of the characters in the character selection screen. The shaping of the characters looks very funny but also creates a sense of irony, especially when the characters are gloating as they “crush” the opponent. The background music does its job well.
The only thing I don’t like is that Gematombe always starts the game by retelling the game context and forces you to fight the AI in the first Arcade screen right after, instead of going to the first menu screen for the player to choose. Select game modes. Although you can pause the game and go back to the home screen, this simple actuation of a few buttons every time I enter the game gradually makes me feel more annoyed than excited, especially when it’s “hot” in the game.
After all, Gemtombe offers a simple and fun arcade puzzle experience that will suit most players. This is also the game’s biggest plus point, which makes it a welcome name when you need quick entertainment moments in a busy life.
Gematombe is available for PC (Windows), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo eShop
Developer:
Road games 5
price:
$14.99
The article uses games supported by the publisher.
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