Review by Indie Game Freak, Callabrantus and P Bartholomew

Because Clickr is a great multi-player game, IGR decided to pass it around the writing crew and do a round-table review – we wanted more than one point of view on the game and see whether it held up at all ends of the game board. So please enjoy this multi-player review of this colorful new game from NTREEV Soft.

Developer Summary:

Click, turn and match four!

Clickr, the next generation of puzzle-action!

Throughout the whole journey, compete against friends and foes in head-to-head match-ups and become the king of Clickr in the Earth!

Key features:

Four main game modes: Puzzle, Battle, Push, and IQ modes

Multiple sub-modes and missions for various playing preferences

Three sub-modes at Puzzle Mode: Point Challenge, Combo Challenge and Stage Challenge with 50 stages

16 missions and self-challenge mode at Battle and Push Modes

200 smart puzzles at IQ Mode

Multi-play also available: Head-to-head match-ups in Battle and Push Modes

Three different themes: Each of Basic, Africa and Zombie theme provides different characters, effects, skins and sounds!

More than 70 Steam Achievements to unlock

Additional Features: Help-video, controls for left-handers, and global leaderboards

What We Think:

IndieGameFreak:

Although I went feeling a little burned out on casual chain-seeking family games with little more than a new icon set – I really liked Clickr – I was more than half expecting another Bejeweled/Puzzle Quest variation, but instead found something more akin to the new wave of slick tile-based puzzle games like Cipher Prime’s Fractal.

When we started playing the multiplayer, I was both confused and distracted by the interface (the little marching characters at the top) but after I had had more time to play the solo campaign, it started to make sense and I couldn’t wait to get back to some more PvP.

Speaking of which, I love how the solo campaign keeps changing up not only the style and size of the game board, but the nature of the puzzles. Actually, once the the dead blocks and wild cards (stars) started piling up, and I started getting a little further under the hood of the game’s mechanics, I was reminded of real puzzle games like Cogs – a very good thing. I was actually strategizing forward five or six moves. I could never quite beat level 17, but it was fun getting up to that.

In terms of design and presentation, I got a kick out of the weird, annoying “It’s A Small World”-on-crack music and SFX, the smooth vectors graphics and sugary Harajuku animation. Don’t have much to complain about.

Callabrantus:

It was saccharine sweet. I thought they banned the stuff, but sure enough, Clickr! piles it on in giant heart-stopping heaps. The little voices that accompany the ooey-gooey soundtrack remind me of the ululations heard in LocoRoco.

That said, the game is blazing fast. With no limit to how many blocks you can Click out of existence, it can quickly degrade into a random mouse-button mash. If you want big points, you need big combos and chains. Just when hope seems lost, flip the screen to the left or right, and let gravity make large colourful blocks out of negative space.

A highly enjoyable game overall, great for the casual crowd, but offering a decent multiplayer challenge for those favoring a taste of adorable critter blood. I fared well, yet I know that as soon as my wife starts playing, she’s going to hand me my ass. When it comes to co-op puzzle games, it’s like she can see through the Matrix.

Oh yeah, and, I also want to mention that level 17 is f$#%g impossible.

P Bartholomew:

Speak for yourselves. I didn’t get stuck till level 34 😛

The two additional skins add a lot of fun to the mix. Zombies, ghouls, and reapers are much more fun than cute cube creatures to watch shuffle across the screen. They’re still cute though…

The audio reminded me a lot of Puzzle Bobble, even down to the “Ready … go!” of battles.

The game is really deceptive in that the presentation seems very casual, but the gameplay can get very hard, very fast. I think I’d need a mind like a steel trap and fingers to match to finish anything. Multi-player is a lot of fun, though limited.

Indie Game Freak:

Nice – you know what, I found the zombie skin (unlockable by achievements that can be accomplished in the solo campaign) to be too distracting. I never got the Africa skin because I spent my points (which are collected by making it through stages and gauntlets) on power ups and not styles. Though what I did appreciate is that it (the skins) essentially make it into a new game – not just the same thing with a different color.

Also, Callabrantus brought up a really important point about the gameplay here, something that does set Clickr apart from Hexic or Lumines – you can actually turn the game board itself around, with the bottom end using gravity physics to pull down any blocks that have an empty space below them, which can totally free up moves, or if you are a savant, allowing you to suddenly pop a series of combos out.

Overall Clickr is a well-developed, sure bet with high replay value and worth looking into, especially if you can find some friends to indulge your sudden passion for sugary sweet puzzlers.

Rating: