Developer: Polygon-e

Publisher: Polygon-e

Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)

Category: Puzzle & Strategy

Release Date: November 7, 2018 (EU & NA)

“One step at a time.”

Like with any video game genre, puzzle games come in all shapes and sizes, but tell me, have you ever played a puzzle game that comes from Galicia, Spain? From the hearts and minds of developer & publisher Polygon-e, CricktoGame is the first ever game to be developed in Galicia and this November, you’ll have the chance to purchase it from the Nintendo Switch eShop. But that’s enough about the game’s history, let’s talk about its present and just what it has to offer.

Essentially CricktoGame is your typical puzzle-solving extravaganza that welcomes those of all ages, as long as they like a good brain teaser, whilst featuring a board-like background for every level.

With regards to the actual gameplay, the game board is occupied by different coloured octagon “squares” and the squares have lines connecting them called “roads.” There is a circle “game piece” on each octagon square, save one on every map.

The reason for this absence is so that players can use it to slide a game piece to and keep on moving pieces until you are able to match every circle to an octagon of their matching colour and symbol.

Successfully lining every circle up will complete the level, but if you wish to challenge it again, you absolutely can as CricktoGame does keep a note of how long it took you to complete a given level and the number of moves it took you. If you don’t want to repeat a level though, in CricktoGame’s Standard Mode, there are 52 levels for you to beat.

Should Standard prove too easy for you though, there is always Deluxe Mode, which has a few new rules for players to learn and take into consideration. Firstly, some roads can’t be used until certain game pieces have been matched with patterns of the same colour. There are also colour roadblocks that prevent pieces of the same colour from being able to pass.

Then of course Deluxe also comes with the challenge of pieces only being able to travel along roads, which they are the same colour as. So, if the road is blue but the circle you wish to move is red, it’s a no go. This mode also has a blank game piece, which will only get their original colour back by navigating them to octagon square labelled “CricktoGame.”

Unlike Standard Mode, which has 52 levels that you are free to play in any order you wish, Deluxe Mode has 81 levels and the only way to play level 81 is to complete the 80 levels that come before it.

Sure, a lot of that may seem pretty straightforward, but Deluxe Mode does indeed offer a challenge for the players who are looking for it. Still, no matter how hard it gets, just remember to take a deep breath or two and clear your mind. “A clear mind can spot a clear path a lot better than a foggy mind can.”

However you choose to play though, should you wish to do everything by fingertip, touch-screen controls are fully supported, but don’t rule out the Joy-Con just yet. One great feature CricktoGame features, is the fact that the colour of the background can be changed to match your Joy-Con.

So, provided you own a Joy-Con that isn’t the standard grey, such as neon green or neon pink and attach them to your Switch, the background will then change colour to match the Joy-Con.

Granted this touch is a cosmetic one, but it does help to put the Switch in CricktoGame: Nintendo Switch Edition. But other than that, there really isn’t anything more to CricktoGame than what you see/read, but that doesn’t make it a bad game as some great puzzle games do have minimal content, but the content they do have, makes players come back for more.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for something that is cheap, cheerful and puzzling, which you can take on the go with you, CricktoGame certainly fits the bill. I might not have personally fallen in love with it, but there is enough to it, to appeal to lovers of the puzzle genre and as the first game to come from Galicia, it does make me keen to see what the next game could be!