Class of '09: Puzzle Showdown

TL;DR: [b]Very basic Match-3 game, that only hardcore Class of '09 fans should consider getting[/b] (on a sale) [h1]Pros:[/h1] [list] [*] [b]+[/b] Once again absolutely stellar voice acting [*] [b]+[/b] Mostly Classic Class of ´09 writing (for what little writing there is) [*] [b]+[/b] Animated Scenes [*] [b]+[/b] Servicable Soundtrack [/list] [h1]Cons:[/h1] [list] [*] [b]-[/b] Barebones match-3 systems [*] [b]-[/b] Little actual content [*] [b]-[/b] Playtime artificially padded through repetition [*] [b]-[/b] Poorly balanced difficulty [*] [b]-[/b] The Chustler [*] [b]-[/b] Achievements locked behind multiplayer without matchmaking [*] [strike][b]-[/b] Buggy mess[/strike] [/list] [h1]In Detail:[/h1] Let's be honest - At this point, i'll buy pretty much any slop he throws at us, just to get some more Class of ´09. And make no Mistake, slop this certainly is. [b]Gameplay[/b] Well - it's a match-3 game, but in it's most basic, boring and uninspired form. It has combos, and that's it. No special tiles, no board variety, no objective variety (i.e. Unfreeze these blocks, move an item down etc.) So how much you'll enjoy the gameplay depends entirely on how much you enjoy the absolute basics of the genre, because that's really all there is here. If you're looking for a match-3 game, there are many other ones out there, that are better. The only good thing during gameplay are the comments on combos from the characters themselves. [b]Main Campaign[/b] The main campaing has you "play" (and i use that word loosely) as Nicole, Jecka, Ari or Emily through 11 increasingly difficult stages of the same bland gameplay loop, which is only broken up, by intro dialogue before two characters battle it out. (Unfortunately there is no dialogue after a battle, which would've definitely been a treat!) That is the main, an honestly kind of the only draw of the campaign. You get more Class of ´09 writing and you see some characters interact that usually don't really talk much on screen. (f.e. Ari and Crispin etc.) The social commentary seems more on the nose than usual in many instances, and only a twelve year old may describe the main antagonist as 'deep'. Overall the campaign doesn't delivery much of anything and is basically just busywork to get some voicelines. There is one ray of hope, though, which is Weekend at Kellys! [b]Weekend at Kellys[/b] The unsuspecting star of this installment. The Gameplay is just as bland as the main campaign, except you play against an ever faster moving board instead of an opponent, but you actually get to make some choices, like in the visual novels. Don't listen to anyone else, don't listen to the marketing, don't even listen to SBN3 - this isn't a Nicole or a Jecka game. And it's certainly not an Ari or Emily game. [b]Class of ´09 Puzzle showdown is a Kelly game, and that's probably for the best. [/b] This mode has 8 different endings and follows Kelly over many years, exploring the different paths your choices might take her. And these get wild at times! Unfortunately, this mode too is held back by difficulty and repetition. Because there is challenging difficulty, and then there is obnoxious difficulty. Seriously, if you can play levels at speed 50 and don't think it's a little too much, you need to go to a match-3 championship or some sh*t.. (Or it has been nerfed already, which it almost certainly will) Worse yet, to get all 8 endings you have to play the entire mode 8 times. Which means 25 stages 8 times, resulting in a whopping 200 levels ranging from snail-pace to literally being able to lose 1 second after starting if you don't match anything fast enough. [b]Bottom Line[/b] Class of ´09 Puzzle Showdown was an experiment to branch out that did not get the time or polish it needed and deserved. I'm convinced the formula itself could've worked. If there had been a bigger focus on making it more interesting, less repetitiv and giving the fanbase a little more of the content they actually wanted. As it stands it was a buggy mess on release, that fails to do anything new, fails to live up to other competitors in the genre and is only worth your time because of the once again great voicework and the bits and pieces of Class of ´09 being thrown in, as well as the animated scenes that have been added. [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] An overpriced, yet barebones match-3 game, carried almost entirely by its stellar voice acting and the Class of '09 brand. Only recommended on a major sale and if you already know why you love Class of ´09. [h1]4/10[/h1]

The game is so difficult I was driven mad. Screw Kelly, screw The Chustler, and screw The Puzzler. 14 hours non-stop and I've yet to touch Marathon mode. 10/10 would go crazy again. On a more serious note, I really enjoyed having to learn something almost completely new and trying different ways to beat either the Kelly levels or the main Campaign either through sheer luck or skill. The soundtrack was incredible and was definitely saving my sanity during my playthrough. Lastly i'm always a sucker for more animated story and the final cutscene left me shocked and wanting more. Can't wait to see what this series has in store.

This game feels like the common cold except it costs £20 and little bit of self-worth.

Coming from someone who has played Pokémon Puzzle League, Puzzle Fighter, Tetris Attack, and similar games, I expected this to be challenging, but not nearly as brutal as it is. There are moments where I’m sitting there getting absolutely destroyed by a bot that can fill my screen with combos in ten seconds, while the game expects me to respond perfectly with another wave of garbage already coming five seconds later. I would like to say the game is enjoyable, because I do like the story and I respect the style it is going for, but as a semi-casual player, you still have to sweat your cheeks off just to get past the harder difficulty spikes. At this point, I’m mostly thugging out the games bs because I genuinely want to see the rest of the story, not because the difficulty curve itself feels fun. EDIT: Why is this game under casual when you have to sweat your cheeks off on higher difficulties?

As a class of '09 fan, in short, this game is ass . Absolutely disappointing. I was very excited for this game since the flip side was very mid, and I thought that this would make up for it. First of all, this game feels extremely cheap, and so does the UI . The gameplay itself is bad there's no tutorial at the start, only one in the settings that's poorly written and not helpful whatsoever. Another thing is that this game is adding unnecessary story that, to be honest, I wouldn't even call a story since it's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ . I feel like this game has potential if the UI were better, less cheap , and more appealing to look at, and if there were an actual story to this . Overall, 3/10. Awful. Don't buy this unless it's on a big sale.

So I'm hoping people who didn't like Flip Side at least give it some credit now, this entry is an actual low to the series and it might be time to pack it up now if the anime is stuck at the pilot stage. Puzzle Showdown has very weak dialogue and characters which was the main reason this franchise excelled and very obviously uses the puzzle gameplay to cover up that fact. No endings, No discourse, not really much at all but I suppose you can look at a very high fidelity Kelly swimsuit sprite if that suits your fancy. Would pick it up if it was ALOT cheaper, otherwise don't bother with this one, I don't think even watching it on youtube would be that engaging.

ts so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ass

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS* I assumed the reason this game got hated on, was mainly because of how it's a puzzle and not the visual novel game from the previous ones. I purchased knowing it would be different. and indeed its... different. It's I guess.... a choice....??? This game does not need to be $20 for a puzzle game, it could be like... $5 or MAYBE $9.99 I enjoy how there actually is still a story to it, on why we are playing the puzzle in the first place, but the ending kinda doesn't make much sense - the villain doesn't exactly have a good reason that fits with the plot on why he does this, and the game just... ends. Someone needs to tell them to not crank enemy ai puzzle by the max difficulty. It goes excessively fast, and when the computer player literally scans their side for instant choices, it's unfair to the player. It only somewhat makes sense for Emily on adderall. The "hardest" mode might as well just be simply "impossible, go watch on YouTube" because that is what I had to end up doing. I'm not retrying 50+ times from defeating 2 characters for a 1 minute cutscene that doesn't really make much sense. If you don't care about gameplay and only want to watch the characters interaction, save your $20 and watch it on YouTube.

bought it played 1 hour i am refunding rn what in the actual ♥♥♥♥ is wrong with you sbn3

As a major fan of the visual novel games, this game is really bad. it feels like a mobile flash player game, the high quality character portraits don't mix well with everything else looking like something made in 2008, the high quality character portraits also makes the game feel like they were just stripped off of the internet then put together with the low quality UI elements, everything else feels really low quality too, you can literally see the pixels on a ton of text strings. The actual concept isn't even original, actually, NOTHING in this is original apart from the story (which sucks by the way), the concept, the UI, the mechanics, EVERYTHING is stolen from a pokémon game from the year 2000 The story sucks, completely unrealistic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the past games weren't realistic either, but the whole story for this one is just 'everyone got hacked and now everyone gotta play a game' ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Characters here are suffering from flanderization (according to Wikipedia: " [i] Flanderization is the process through which a fictional character's essential traits are oversimplified and exaggerated over a serial work. it is often associated with and cited as a consequence of "jumping the shark", a term used to demonstrate a creative work's gradual decline in quality which leads to a sudden decline in popularity. [/i] ") like, every character here feels like a stereotype of themselves when compared to the other games. Can't forget the fact that some characters are completely different from their past appereances, like Kelly for example, who went from this kinda dumby ♥♥♥♥♥ girl who was nice to everyone and desperate for male attention to someone who criticizes everything in a political way, almost like Nicole, but without the anger Nicole has. The sudden switch from a underground visual novel series with a offensive and sometimes deep themes to a mobile/flash game from 2008 feels ridiculous. The game is also unbearable, never fun, either extremely difficult or extremely easy depending on the stage Overall, is this worth $20? ♥♥♥♥ no. Unless you'd like to pay $20 to play a game you could play for free in an emulator.