Game: Chime

Platform: Xbox Live Arcade

Game length: About 3 hours to understand all concepts and get decent at it. Puzzle games usually have infinite replay value, so this is more up to the player.

Completed? Both completed all levels with coverage goals + spent lots of time in free mode

Lead Reviewer: Charis

Chime doesn’t look like much when you first start it up. The only thoughts running through my mind were “How much can you do with a blank screen, placing some shapes together, and some music? Oh, wait a second, I just pretty much described one of the greatest puzzle games of all time…”

Charis: In certain ways, Chime is highly comparable to Tetris. The major differences lie in the fact that the shapes don’t fall, you can place them however you like on the grid, and a beat line that follows the background music essentially works as your multiplier. OK, so it doesn’t sound like it, but hear me out. You are given shapes and the point is to place them on the grid to create “quads”. This the entire focus of the game. As you create each quad, a beat line passes over the screen and musical interludes, dependent on shape, are played along with the background track.

Shawn: I’ll be totally honest here. Chime was completely over my head when I started playing it. I mean, I understood to place the pieces together, but it took me a good 30-40 minutes to really understand what was happening on screen. The beat line that passes over the grid dictates your score. If you have any pieces on the board that are not part of a quad, you have a certain amount of beat line passes before it will disappear, and your multiplier will be gone. Phew, that’s that part. The reason this confused me so much is because the purpose of the game has to do with coverage of the grid. To “complete” a level you have to cover at least 50% of the board, but you are given the option to play 3, 6, or 9 minute levels. I normally hate tutorials, but man it would have really saved me some trouble here.

Charis: It definitely would have helped, but like you said, as soon as you grasp the concept of coverage it’s a whole new game. Each level has unique grids to cover with new shapes and a specific music track. The music may not be the most exciting, but that is part of the point. Chime is about relaxing and the “Free mode” in particular allows for the most relaxation. With no time limit, you can continue to place shapes without the stress of completing it in a short amount of time. You can just learn the levels and enjoy what Chime offers.

Conclusion?
It’s hard to do much better than a game like Chime. At $5 this game is a must buy, not only because it’s great, but because $3 of that also goes to charity. We had more fun with this $5 game than a lot of full price retail releases, plus it was all for a good cause. You can’t ask for much better than that. If you consider yourself a fan of puzzle games, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not playing Chime. It’s not revolutionary by any means, but it’s worthy of being in any collection… and at this price you can’t go wrong.

Score

8.0

(7’s and 8’s are good to great games that excel in certain areas, but fall short in others. It needs to have some great ideas and be consistently fun. It may have technical flaws that hold it back from being a better game, as well. It’s worth a purchase to fans of the specific series or genre, but comes with hesitations for anyone else)