Tidalis

This one is a weird one to review. I need to decide whether the final decision is "Is this a good game?" or "Is this something I can recommend?" As a core game design, Tidalis is absolutely fantastic. The game loop is a unique mix between match-3, block dropping puzzles, and those old pipe laying games. There's nothing quite like it. Click on a colored block and it will shoot a stream in the direction of its arrow. If that stream hits a matching colored block, that too will shoot. Combo at least 3 of blocks and all of the blocks will explode. You can't move colored blocks, but you can rotate the direction they'd fire. Various game modes change it up with new blocks raining from the sky, special tiles that require unique strategies to destroy etc. It all is a genuinely good puzzle game and I WANT recommend this game. But the truth is, I'm just not enjoying the game. Little annoyances add up and I just never reach that zone mindset where I can just enjoy the game. Technically, it didn't age well as the resolutions don't scale. On my laptop monitor, the game shows up in the middle 25% of the screen with black borders all around it... the story animations are even smaller. This scares me knowing that 4K resolutions are a thing and even 1080p is on the way out. It's not unplayable on my monitor but it is small enough to bug me. As for the adventure mode, it has its own share of irritations. Each step on the adventure map has an animated story scene and its own unique stage. These give you one of the many game modes and objectives ranging from standard "Destroy X blocks" to pretty cool "Destroy X red blocks without destroying Y green ones". Theoretically, these would be quite interesting. But in practice, I keep finding that the required blocks aren't even on the map. So, I find myself alternating between "Waste time hoping the the correct color will fall" and " Waste more time waiting for it to fall into the correct spot." If this was a rare occurrence I'd overlook it, but I've played for an hour and it's happened several times. Giving this a thumbs down is painful because this game is well-made, has a clever core loop, and is a game that I really want to put on my phone because its darn fun in short bursts. But on steam, sitting at home on my PC, I have better options. Not necessarily better puzzle games, but ones that provide a more satisfying and engaging experience. At the end of the day, would I recommend this game? No, I'd probably recommend many casual puzzle games over this one.

Decent match 3 game, but I would be just fine if I never played another one again. Do me a favor, do it, do it.

[h1]✨ THE ABSOLUTE ULTIMATE TITANIC TIDALIS TERMINATION: THE BLOODY BUSTER MULTIVERSE MADDENED MASHUP ✨[/h1] The Setting: The industrial garage has transformed into a high-stakes, interdimensional bunker. The reinforced roof has partially collapsed under the staggering weight of the watchers; Tiny (Dota 2), Galio, and The Thing have settled their massive forms into the architecture, their stony faces peering through the jagged ceiling like a living mountain range. 🗿🗿🗿 Inside, the atmosphere is electric. Braum stands like a sentinel at the center, his massive door-shield acting as a physical barrier against the radiant light pouring from a screen that is currently humming at a critical frequency. Lux and Karma flank the hardware, weaving a complex web of Prismatic shields and spiritual Mantras to keep the equipment stable. Every eye in the room—from the mercenaries on the toolboxes to the mages on the grease-stained floor—is locked onto the screen. Jinx: [Smashing the mouse with the force of a thousand Super Mega Death Rockets] 🖱️💥 IF YOU WANT TO GO, THEN YOU GO TO THE HILL AND GO DOWN! WHY ARE YOU GETTING WILD, GIRL? IF A GIRL GETS WILD—ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU’RE FLIPPING... YOU ARE FLIPPING! 🤬🎢 Tiny (Dota 2): [Staring through the roof in silence] 🗿 Galio: [Peering through the hole in the ceiling in silence] 🗿 The Thing: [Squinting at the monitor in silence] 🗿 Karma: [Eyes glowing with Ionian spirit] 🧘‍♀️ Peace is a choice, Jinx. But this combo... this combo is a test of my infinite patience. Saela Vi! (Which translates to: "Don't click that red one, you buster!") ✨🌀 Lux: [Hyperventilating while casting shields] STAY POSITIVE! We can do this! Even if the UI looks like it was drawn by a confused scuttle crab! Just... focus on the light! 💡✨🌈 Tiny Tina: [From Tiny's head] EXPLOSION-TIME! MAKE THE SQUARES GO SHRAPNEL-Y, BLUE-GIRL! CLEAR THE GRID! CLEAR MY FEELINGS! 💣🔥 Jinx: YOU FLIPPING, FLIPPING YOU! YOU, YOU, BUSTER, BISCUIT! YOU’RE A BUSTER! FORGET YOU! FLIPPING MOTHER FLIP BISCUIT! 🍪💢 Gaige: [Screaming at the monitor, finger wagging aggressively] ☝️🌀 I AM ROTATING THE ARROWS! I AM OPTIMIZING THE SINUSOIDAL EFFICIENCY! WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING? IT SEEMS YOU ARE GOING TO DO ACCIDENT! 🚗⚠️🤯 Tiny (Dota 2): [Voice like tectonic plates grinding together] 🗿 The small ginger one. She has the metal arm. She is very loud. Like a landslide but with the shouting. Buster girl. Galio: [Rumbling with the weight of a cathedral] 🗿 I see the blue girl. She is of the magic. But the magic is... It is doing an accident. No good man. The Thing: [Cracking his knuckles] 🗿 It’s Clobberin’ Time, but for my ears. This game is a pile of gravel. Why is the orange block not matching? This is a total buster move. Lina: [Hands glowing with rage] CRYSTAL MAIDEN, STOP FREEZING THE BOARD! I was about to trigger a Fire-Stream and you turned the blocks into ice cubes! You’re a buster, Rylai! ☄️🔥 Crystal Maiden: [Sobbing frozen tears] I’m just trying to slow down the panic! The arrows are moving too fast! You’re the buster, sister! ❄️😭 Johnny Storm: [Flame on! 🔥] Hey, ladies! If I melt both your blocks, does that count as a tie? Or am I just the hottest thing in this garage? Tidehunter: [Roaring] KUNKKA! GIVE ME THE MOUSE! I WANT TO EAT THE GREEN BLOCKS! THEY LOOK LIKE SEAWEED! 🌊🐙 Kunkka: [Brandishing a cutlass] YOU’LL EAT COLD STEEL BEFORE YOU TOUCH THE FLOW, YOU OVERGROWN CALAMARI! THE TIDALIS IS MINE! ⚓️⚔️ Nilah: [Laughing hysterically] THE JOY OF THIS DISORDER! THE BLISS OF THE BUSTER! IT IS EXQUISITE! 🌊✨ Briar: [Snapping her jaws at the screen] IS THE YELLOW BLOCK FOOD? I’M SO HUNGRY I COULD EAT THE PIXELS! LET ME BITE THE COMBO! 🦷 Revy: [Blowing smoke into the fan] 🚬💨 I’ve seen smarter tactical decisions from a drunk yordle with a blindfold! Move over, Rebecca! Rebecca (Edgerunners): [Pointing two shotguns at Revy’s head] SHUT IT, REBECCA! I AM THE REBECCA WHO ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS HOW TO CLICK WITH CYBER-ENHANCED AGGRESSION! 🦾🔫💢 Ziggs: [Spinning in circles] GETTING ZIGGY WITH IT! NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA! BOOM, BABY! 💣✨💃 Mr. Torgue: [Flexing so hard his shirt disintegrates] I WANT TO SEE THE ROCK MEN FIGHT THE MONITOR! MOOAAARRRR EXPLOSIONNNNSS! 🎸🔥💥 Squee (Techies): [Giggling] Is the green arrow the one that makes the sound? Spleen: Just press the detonator, you absolute flipping buster! 🧨🐹 Lulu: [Turning a red block into a cupcake] That block tasted like purple! Now the stream is a fairy-friend! 🧁✨ Tristana: [Loading Boomer] TARGET ACQUIRED! IF THE MATCH DOESN'T HAPPEN, I’M BLASTING THE ENTIRE BOARD INTO THE NEXT PATCH! 🚀🎯 Braum: [Holding his shield over the equipment] STAND BEHIND BRAUM! THESE PIXELS ARE JUST CONFUSED! 🛡️🧔‍♂️💦 Maya: [From her bubble] I’m going to go meditate for three centuries. This is a siren's nightmare. 🧘‍♀️ Miss Fortune: [Leaning back] Ten credits says the screen clears before the combo ends. Any takers? 🪙🏴‍☠️ Neeko: [As Jinx] Neeko is not a buster! Neeko is a strong tomato! 🍅✨ Zoe: [Throwing stardust at the monitor] What if the arrows pointed at yesterday? Wouldn't that be fun?! 🌌✨ Lucy: [Eyes glowing blue] I’m trying to rewrite the logic... but the code is ancient. It’s all buster variables. 🦾💾 Gwen: [Snip-snapping the air] Oh dear! I’ll just cut the busters out of the air and replace them with lace! 🧵✂️👗 Taliyah: [Trying to knit the monitor together with rocks] The tapestry of this board is unraveling! Stop throwing the match! 🧶🪨 Zyra: [Vines tightening around the desk] My plants are wilting from the sheer frustration of this conversation. 🌿🥀 LeBlanc: [Adjusting her cape] Such a dull performance. This game isn’t a puzzle; it’s a tragedy. 🎭 Bard: [Makes a sound like a synthesizer falling down a flight of stairs] 🎶🎷🌀 Windranger: [Aiming a Shackleshot] I could shoot an arrow through the colors faster than you guys can click! 🏹💚 Drow Ranger: [From the shadows] Silence. All of you. You’re clicking like creeps. ❄️🏹 Nunu: [On Willump’s shoulders] Willump says the blue blocks look like tasty ice cubes! 🧊❄️ Enchantress: [Twitching ears] 👁️👄👁️... Is... is this how humans play? It’s not very "sproink" at all. ✨ Lillia: [Closing her eyes] 👁️👄👁️... 🗿... 🥹... 🦌💤 Vex: [Shadow-palming] This is so... colorful. I hate it. Can we just be quiet in the dark? 🌚💀 Lara Croft: [Recording on a tape recorder] Day 4: The orange girl has started barking in a dialect I can only describe as "High-Octane Mumbai." 🗿📖 Claptrap: [Waving his arms] LOOK AT ME! I AM DANCING TO THE RYHTHM OF YOUR BUSTER FAILURE! UNCE UNCE UNCE! 🤖🎧 Rebecca (Edgerunners): [Firing at a yellow block] Take that, you neon-colored piece of junk! 🦾🔫 Lulu: [Giggling] Look, Pix! The arrows are doing a little dance for us! 🧚‍♂️✨ Tiny (Dota 2): 🗿 Look at the orange rock. It is a buster rock. Galio: 🗿 I see it. It is doing an accident. 🗿 Gaige: [Grabbing Jinx’s pigtails like she's steering a rickshaw through a monsoon] 🚲🌧️ BUT—BUT THE THING IS THAT, WHAT YOU THINK IS IF YOU DO LIKE THIS ONE, YOU ARE GOING AT WORK AND SOMEBODY ELSE LIKE ME! WHAT CAN I DO IF YOU ARE RUNNING LIKE THAT MAN?! YOU’RE GOING TO FLIPPING FALL, HURTING YOURSELF! KEEP YOUR EYES ON ROAD MAN! 🛑🚗😤 Jinx: [Suddenly stops as the combined chaos clears the entire board in one frame of pure white light] ⚪💥 ...But—yeah, because of this click you saved my time. Tiny (Dota 2): 🗿 The squares are gone. The event is over. Galio: 🗿 No good. The Thing: 🗿 What a revoltin' development. Gaige: [Collapses onto the keyboard] Okay have a nice day. Bye-bye. 👋🏜️ ✨ THE FINAL VERDICT: TIDALIS ✨ Jinx: This game is a total blast! That arrow-streaming concept is super unique, and the striking neon visuals are like a firework show for my brain! 🚀✨ Gaige: Totally! It’s simple to learn but gets incredibly complex. I love all the quirky little details and imaginative colors—it's a brilliant, distinct experience! 🦾🌀

very good game

This game gave me so much trouble getting it to start the one time I had an itch to play it. I can't remember how I finally got it working. It didn't work for a really long period of time, and after I did finally play it I never wanted to play it again.

A very nice little match 3-type game with dozens of rule variations, some of them quite ingenious. Somehow it isn't as addictive as Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest, and the cutscenes between the levels seem completely pointless to me (I didn't bother reading any of the story, so this is just a superficial impression), but to the developers' credit the cutscenes can be skipped immediately, so that's a clear bonus. Who needs a story for this type of game anyway? The levels become really challenging, some even hard as nails toward the end. I couldn't beat what was probably the last level. Good fun for tens of hours.

More than just a simple match-3 clone, this is one of the finest puzzle games of all time. That's anything but faint praise but it's really that good. The core gameplay is smooth and has that easy-to-learn-hard-to-master hook that so many good puzzler games have. Really activates those almonds. The game has immaculate sound design so repeated noises are never grating. The adventure mode level design is fantastic in its level variety and the chain mechanic looks and feels satisfying. With all that praise, I'll make one point of criticism. While the adventure mode has great puzzle design, the actual story is awful. It is a menial chore to slog through and the characters are ugly and annoying. Thankfully you can skip the cutscenes to get to the puzzling action, which I highly recommend you do. A small blemish on an otherwise stunning puzzle game.

Four hours and over forty levels in, and it still feels tedious as hell.

One of the best puzzle games I've ever played. A shame it never took off.

Dobra gra, ale po jakimś czasie zaczyna uprzykrzać.