BigBot Audio Drop Review: Windows Phone gets an exclusive, stylish puzzle game

After taking last week off to review Microsoft's Xbox One console, I'1000 back with a await at a simply-released indie game for Windows Phone 7 and 8. BigBot Audio Drop comes from Wisconsin-based indie developer BigBot Systems. Non only is information technology their first game, it'due south likewise sectional to Windows Phone.

BigBot Audio Drop blends traditional falling cake gameplay with thumping electronic music and slick visuals. The gameplay and blueprint are closely modeled after Lumines, an early on PSP hit that subsequently came to XBLA and other platforms. Simply Lumines never came to Windows Telephone, so Audio Driblet fills a nice gap in our favorite smartphone's software lineup. It also comes in both paid and free versions, and then it won't interruption the banking concern.

Match three? No way, 4 square

Many falling block games autumn into the lucifer-iii category, with players matching three of the same object in order to eliminate them. Not all genre titles are lucifer three, though. Tetris – the father of the genre – marches to the beat of its ain drum, later on all.

BigBot Sound Drop is 1 of those that works a tad differently. Inside the playing field you lot'll find pieces falling from the sky, sure. In that location'due south besides a vertical line called the time bar which passes from left to right at regular intervals, proving of import to differentiating Audio Driblet (equally with Lumines earlier it) from other puzzlers.

Each square-shaped piece that falls from the heaven is made upwardly of iv smaller blocks. Those smaller blocks only come in two varieties: circumvolve and square.  The player's objective is to lucifer at to the lowest degree iv of the same shape in a 2 10 2 design. Once yous do, those pieces go "primed" (marked) to be cleared.

Those marked pieces don't actually disappear until the vertical line scrolls by and touches them. As long as pieces are marked merely haven't been cleared nevertheless, yous can get more points by stacking more of the same shape side by side to the marked structure, causing them to merge with it. If any additional, carve up sets of marked shapes go cleared by the same vertical line, you lot'll get. a combo bonus for them

In add-on to rotating pieces and stacking them as best you tin, you tin besides drop them down instantly. Dropping is important for making combos since you want to clear equally many pieces every bit possible each time the line passes by.

Power drops and abilities

Additionally, two little beat indicators constantly tick down at the lesser of the screen. Drop a cake exactly when the beat hits the center to perform a power drib. These charge up special abilities and boost the combo meter. I find timing my drops to the beat somewhat difficult when I'm trying to aimlessly make matches, but you'll become plenty power drops just by risk anyhow.

Special abilities are another way that Audio Driblet differs from typical puzzlers. Instead of grabbing power-ups from the playing field, players have four different abilities that charge upwardly during a level. Each one charges at its ain rate, with the more than useful abilities taking longer to become available than the simpler ones. Activating an power depletes all 4 charges, and so you basically have to save upward for only the one you desire and ignore the others.

Abilities include:

• Switch: a virtual d-pad appears, allowing players to switch any blocks on-screen with the current active block
• Deadening: The timeline bar moves one-half every bit fast, making combos much easier to become
• Multi: a temporary quadruple points multiplier
• Bomb: the virtual d-pad allows players to detonate pieces off of the playing field

Music and levels

Whenever a current level's song ends, players move on to the side by side song and level. The game launches with six songs, all electronic compositions from an artist called SGX. Each vocal as well has its own beautiful background and color theme for its falling blocks.

You can select a vocal to play from the primary menu, but it's hard to know what you lot're picking if you haven't memorized the song. Information technology should play preview snippets of a song before players choose to launch the game.

The selection of songs is quite similar to what I remember from Lumines. Honestly, most of them are too discordant for my liking. "Span" is okay. I never dug Lumines' soundtrack either. Music is of course subjective, and I expect some players will really dig the tunes. You lot can even buy an expanded version of the soundtrack at Xbox Music.

Different the songs, Audio Drop's sound effects are mixed adequately placidity. Then much and then that I outset thought they were missing or something (partially my own error). I had to turn them up louder than the music to actually hear them very well.

As for the song transitions between levels, the level y'all're playing basically but ends with no warning. You're then taken to a Scoreloop leaderboard screen and the next song starts after a few seconds. I don't like how abruptly songs cease though. The screen should flash and count down to the cease of the song or something – provide a petty urgency to the puzzling.

Controls

As slick equally BigBot Audio Drop looks and sounds, its controls need a little work. In the default scheme, tapping the left and correct sides of the screen moves the falling blocks left and right. The lesser corners rotate the pieces, and tiny little drib buttons beside the rotation areas.

The problem is the hitboxes for the left/right movement don't extend depression enough on screen, and then you need to keep your thumbs in a higher place than usual in guild to hitting them. And the driblet buttons are just too tiny and hard to hitting… All of which adds an unintended degree of claiming to the game.

Having played a prerelease version of the game for a few days at present, I've already had the chance to talk over the controls at length with the developer. Thankfully, they concord about the control issues and plan to gear up them in a forthcoming update.

Complimentary versus Paid

BigBot Sound Drop comes in both free and paid versions. The free version includes five songs and the default "Audio Drop" game mode. It displays adds on the menu screens, simply non during gameplay.

Buying the full game for $ane.99 volition disable ads. It also adds a sixth song: "Coactive (Over my Shoulder Mix)" and a "Pure" game mode that disables special abilities, simplifying gameplay a smidge.

Depending on how well the game does, BigBot would dear to add more songs in the hereafter. That would certainly heave the game'due south longevity.

Overall Impression

BigBot Sound Drop is an unusually polished game from a kickoff-time indie developer, with ample visual flair from first to finish. The menus and fonts simply look super slick, and the gameplay graphics and backgrounds don't disappoint either. The music (while not quite to my own gustation - give me chiptunes!) fits the visual style very well, justifying the title of the game. There needs to be more tracks, only those volition surely come in time.

If you like puzzle games or electronic music, drop this game into your download queue and give information technology a go.

• BigBot Audio Drop – Windows Telephone seven and 8 – 18 MB – $1.99 – Store Link
• BigBot Audio Drop Free Edition  – Windows Telephone 7 and viii – 16 MB – Free – Store Link
• BigBot Audio Driblet Soundtrack – xiv tracks – $9.99 – Composer'due south Store Link – Xbox Music Shop Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/bigbot-audio-drop-windows-phone-8-review

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