OVERVIEW

TILES is an indie puzzler which requires a fast mind and even faster reflexes to solve.

Release Date: February 20th 2018
Size: 49.93 MB
Genre: Puzzle/Platformer
Developed by Romans I XVI Gaming
Published by Romans I XVI Gaming
Reviewed on Xbox One S; Also available on PS4 and PC.

STORY

In a world where curves have been outlawed and removed from all existence, we find ourselves trapped inside a glowing square, perilously perched on a floating platform with nothing but a pathway of blue preventing us from dropping into an endless black abyss.
It’s a straight puzzle game about tiles, it has no story but it is fun to pretend… isn’t it?

GAMEPLAY

The object of TILES is simple, move your white square around the course, making sure to land on every blue tile, before finding your way to the red squared end goal. What makes this tricky is that once you land on a blue one, it drops away. Meaning you need to carefully plan out your route to make sure you don’t hit a dead end or leave any tiles behind. As the game goes on, the pattern pathways get more intricate and introduce new elements, illustrated with different coloured Tiles. For example the Purples don’t drop and are a handy rest stop for you to plan your next move, Orange tiles flash in and out so your timing needs to be on point to cross them and Yellow tiles drop after a certain amount of time whether you’ve touched them or not.
Movement is controlled by the d-pad, no analogue controls are available and to be honest you wouldn’t want them anyway. This game is about precision movement and impeccable timing. In fact as the puzzle difficulty ramps up it almost becomes less about working out the right path and more about the sheer speed you are able to move your square around the board without flying of the edge.

SINGLE PLAYER

The game presents an unlocking list of 90 increasingly difficult puzzle paths. Should you manage to solve them all, have no fear as there is also a handy level editor included, the same one used to create the games actual puzzles. So you can either try out some of the truly mind blowing, finger crippling creations other players have made or upload your own fiendish formations and challenge the world to conquer them.

 

MULTIPLAYER

The multiplayer here is simply the same as the single player, except it split screen and you face to see who can solve the board first. Its fun enough and adding the race element to the proceedings does add a little more tension and increase the likelihood of making a mistake. Failing at the last second and having to start again can be infuriating and yet hilarious when in your favour.

GRAPHICS

Horizon Zero Dawn this isn’t but then its not trying to be. The presentation is simple, clean and fluid which when your game is about moving coloured tiles around and breakneck speed is all your really need.

SOUND

Again there’s not really much to it but the musical jingle that’s ever present while playing is pleasant enough. While some may find its repetition a little grating after a while, it was chirpy and inoffensive enough not to bother me. Reminded a little of the Super Mario Land theme and that’s always a plus in my book.

SUMMARY

Tiles is a fun and then frustrating game to play. Its boards are enjoyable to solve but when it comes down more to my fingers just not being fast enough rather than my brain not being able to work out the route the fun started to wane. If however you enjoy a seemingly simple puzzler and have the nimble finger dexterity of a magician, you could do a lot worse that pick up Tiles, especially for the tiny price they’re asking (£3.29 at time of writing).