Gematombe – Review

xboxoldies.com:

Puzzle games have been around since the dark ages and it didn’t take long for single-screen titles like puzzle bobble (bust-a-move) and eventually titles like Tetris to offer competitive vs modes where you’d compete against others, but one puzzle genre I can’t recall offering a vs mode was the classic brick-breaker like Breakout and Arkanoid.

Gematombe gives us exactly that, the 2-screen competitive matchups we’re used to seeing in titles like Bust-a-move 2, Tetris Worlds and more recently the Puzzle Quest franchise, but with the classic gameplay of breaking blocks. The more blocks you clear on your screen the more blocks and obstacles appear for your opponent with the aim to clear your screen or “crush” your opponent to claim the victory.

Gematombe follows the journey of Pandora and a collection of Daemons, there’s 6 characters, each with their own backstory and special attack that will make things more difficulty for your opponent.

From the main menu, you’ve got a brief tutorial and configuration options, followed by the choice between single or versus, if you’ve got a friend nearby (local split-screen play only) you can quickly choose a character and jump into a 1v1 matchup, but most of the gameplay in Gematombe sits inside the single player menu.

There are three modes in total, with Practice letting you get to grips with the game without opponents, Survivor mode testing your endurance against and endless list of opponents and finally arcade where you have to defeat each daemon in a relatively short campaign.

Once you’ve selected your character, you’ll start on the journey as you battle everyone else (and a mirror image on yourself), there’s dialogue between each battle and a unique background, but gameplay