The headline pretty much says it all. When I first fired up Reach Classic I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was. The opening screen was an invitation to play, with a bot unobtrusively playing the game in the background, teaching me everything I needed to know to play for myself. Once I clicked play, I picked up where the bot left off in a seamless transition, much like continuing a train of thought.

From there, Reach Classic felt both familiar and utterly unique. The match 3 system and the way the tiles marched down the screen was reminiscent of Tetris or any bubble shooter game, making it easy to pick up and play. But the novelty of grabbing the on-screen pieces rather than adding new pieces to the board changed the way I thought about match 3 puzzles, which was surprising to me because I honestly thought the genre had hit a ceiling. While my mind naturally wanted to think in terms of Tetris shapes, I had to remind myself that this wasn’t Tetris and that I could break up or add to those shapes if I wanted to. And when a lone vertical line crept toward the edge of the screen and certain death, it was incredibly satisfying to pick it up, move it to another spot and say, “Not today!” The inevitable is no longer inevitable!

But unfortunately, as much as it was easy to pick up Reach Classic, it was just as easy to put it down. Once I had figured out the mechanics and the basic logic of the game, there was no real incentive to keep playing. Sure, they have leaderboards where you can compete for weekly high scores, but that’s about it. And for me, that’s not enough. I like a sense of progress. I like unlocking new levels. I like a trail of loot cookie crumbs to lure me along to the next challenge. That’s what lured me into games like Bejeweled and Candy Crush and kept me playing for an obscene amount of hours. But Reach Classic doesn’t have any of that. While I don’t want to see it sacrifice its beautiful simplicity for over-the-top animations ala Tetris Effect, I would love to see some sort of leveling or progression to give me a reason to keep playing.

Overall, Reach Classic felt like a beautifully simple proof of concept. It has strong core gameplay, but it doesn’t do anything with that potential.

In terms of what you get out of it, I don’t think it’s worth the $2.49USD price tag (As of this writing), which feels painful to say when I know that such a small price tag probably doesn’t go far enough to cover the development costs, small though they may be in this instance. But like I said before, I would like to see the developers do more with this concept. And in that sense, money speaks louder than words, so I do think it is worth putting the $2.49 down on Reach Classic as a pseudo-Kickstarter to encourage the developers to do more with it.

You can learn more about Reach Classic here.