Review by Jon Donnis
Zoo Corporation are back with yet another release in their "Pretty Girls" series, this is number 19 and is called Pretty Girls 2048 Strike.
The 2048 in the title is because the game is based on the classic tile sliding puzzle game of the same name.
If you are unfamiliar of the original game, the idea was to use your arrow keys to move the tiles. Tiles with the same number merge into one when they touch. You would win the game when you have a single tile reach 2048, now with this being a Pretty Girls release, there is a twist in the game. Each game will have a title, or multiple tiles featuring one of the Pretty Girls, they will have a score, and every time you move titles in the direction of the Pretty Girl, whatever number is on that particular tile, would take off the same amount from their score, get the Pretty Girl to zero, and you win the level. However if the board fills up, and there are no moves left, you lose.
It may sound a bit confusing, but this may very well be the most addictive Pretty Girls release yet. The addition of the Pretty Girl tile, really does take the original game to a new level, throw in some special skills, that both you the player, and the Pretty Girl can activate, and that brings another level of gameplay and tactics.
Skills for you can include a shuffle of the whole board. Which is very much needed on harder levels when you are running out of mergeable tiles. Another skill when activated will automatically "attack" every Pretty Girls tile, with the equivalent number of the highest tile on the board.
Skills for the Pretty Girls include things like unmergeable tiles, add another Pretty Girl character tile to the board, put a shield around a tile, and so on.
The game is incredibly easy to pick up, and you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Each set of stages is attached to a different Pretty Girl character, beat all the stages, unlock that girl, earn points for the shop.
As with all Pretty Girls releases, these are sexy Japanese style "Bishoujo" characters, no nudity. Once you collect the Pretty Girls, you can unlock costumes, facial expressions and backgrounds so you can make your Diorama. You can then save the image.
There are 10 stages for each of the five characters. All get progressively harder. And all characters are voiced in Japanese.
There is also an endless mode, where the main aim is just to survive as long as you can, and get as high a tile score as you can. There are 3 stages to play in endless mode, 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 size boards.
There are two types of Character, with Exorcist Swordsman and Demon Tribe, and each character has their own little bio and story. For example
Chikage - Chikage specializes in a ninja-like fighting style. She has a personality that is both hardworking and confident. She admires her mother, who was an exorcist Swordsman, and dressed as a male in order to pursue her strength and follow the path of swordsman.
Lilim - A dream demon. She looks down on humans as food for her energy. She is mischievous and playful, and enjoys bullying humans. She absorbs energy through dreams and hallucinations.
These are mainly just window dressing and don't affect the game, but it is nice that the effort has been made in these characters.
The Good
As with all of the Pretty Girl's releases, they are based on classic games, this is the first one however where I had never played the classic game before, so for me this was a totally new game in every sense. And despite the main gameboard being very simple, the addictive nature of the gameplay cannot be understated. This is a fantastic game, and perhaps my favourite out of all of the Pretty Girls releases, and I have played a lot of them.
Super simple gameplay, with a growing challenge, that really will challenge all fans of puzzle games.
The Bad
Of the various difficulty levels, the first 3 are pretty easy and you will get through the stages in no time, I think either more levels, or more of a balance on those earlier levels would have been good, but then again it might just be that I am very good at this game?
Overall
I loved this game, definitely my favourite of all the releases, and a game I will keep playing after I have written this review, which is always the biggest compliment a game can get. I honestly can't think of anything that would improve this game outside of more levels. It is that good.
Easily Puzzle game of 2022. I score Pretty Girls 2048 Strike on PC (Steam) a super strong 9.5/10. Near puzzle perfection
Out on PC (Steam) Now!
No comments:
Post a Comment