When puzzle games are a dime a dozen it is becoming hard to stand out on an already cluttered Xbox Live Marketplace. Surely after Microsoft announced a ‘clear-out’ the rule should be that we would stop seeing generic puzzle games. TiQal is the exception to that rule.

Gameplay:

Stop me if you have heard this one before. Akin to Lumines and Tetris, in TiQal you have to rotate blocks to make multiples of one colour. You then have a few seconds before they disappear allowing you a few seconds to combo the blocks up to get a higher score. You stopped me already? What TiQal does offer is that is slightly different comes in the form of power up’s. The more points, the more power up’s the game will then release for you to collect. These all basically remove a few blocks from the screen for you and although they might appear to be different they essentially all do the same thing. That’s really the only thing that TiQal does over the classics. The core mode in TiQal is its solo adventure mode that tries to give meaning to a puzzle game. Puzzle game developers need to stop trying to add meaning to dropping giant blocks and yet again here is another game that has failed at a near impossible task. The jist is that you are adventuring through Mayan Pyramids in the Yucatan and are trying to collect ancient artifacts or something like that. If I wanted context or an evolving story I wouldn’t be playing a puzzle game although full credit to the developers, they have included some educational aspects in these text only adventure scenes. While in this mode you’ll notice the incredible slow learning curve. To the point that I didn’t think there was one. Even after a few hours into the adventure mode it is still just as easy as it was at the beginning. Although at first it might appear to have depth, TiQal doesn’t and is a very casual orientated game. The fact that it takes ages to get even close to challenging proves this.

Graphics:

Visually, TiQal has that average Xbox Live Arcade sheen. They do the job and they hold up fairly well. To its credit, TiQal doesn’t look terrible and it uses its Mayan setting to give it a good look although it’s hardly unique. Remember Luxor, Jewel Quest, Zuma or Word Puzzle? Why all puzzle games have to be set in an ancient civilization, I’ll never know.

Sound:

Hardly a treat to the ears and it’s one that will make you thankful for custom soundtracks. Your normal plethora of shiny noises and exploding blocks make up what is an uninspired soundtrack.

Longevity:

There is quite a lot of gameplay here. The multiplayer and single player modes offer up tons of levels that should keep you coming back. That is only if you have never played Tetris or Luminies or one of the many clones of those games. Why would you stick to a clone, if you have the original or one of the many better variations on block dropping? So it will have to come down to a case of quality over quantity and it’s a shame that TiQal doesn’t have the quality.

Overall:

You can’t help but feel that TiQal is a few years too late. In a marketplace that is slowly filling up with generic puzzle games, the new wave of puzzle games has to have something special to even stand out. Unfortunately the Mayan-themed Tetris clone, TiQal fails to impress and appears to be more of entry level puzzler instead of the next big thing.