Chime Sharp (PlayStation 4) Review

By Thom Compton 26.02.2017

Review for Chime Sharp on PlayStation 4

Since the dawn of gaming, there have been certain standards set. Super Mario Bros. taught gamers how to jump and run. Pong taught how to compete against one another. Tetris taught how to think quickly and apply decisions, unable to reverse them. Other games have taken these formulas and made changes, teaching new things. Chime Sharp takes the basic formula of Tetris, and makes changes, but how do they hold up?

Chime Sharp, while being a Tetris style game, is only one in the most basic sense. The game has you placing various shaped blocks on a playing field. The field is a grid, and every time a quad shape is created on the field, you change the colour. There is a time limit, and players are required to change the colour of as much of the board as possible before time runs out.

As progress is made through each of the tracks, the boards change and new shapes are received. Each of the boards comes with its own degree of challenge. One grid will be missing large sections of the grid, while one is missing just the middle of the board. With the insane amount of shapes at one's disposal, there are plenty of variations to use to make quads around the board.

There's the added benefit of each song, thumping away as you work, and fortunately most of the tracks are really intense. Even the slower ones are so easy to get lost in that it's just as easy to lose yourself in the task at hand. This might sound amazing, but it's a bit of a double-edged sword. Chime Sharp isn't interested in forcing its hand, and because of that, it's not immediately obvious what the goal is.

Screenshot for Chime Sharp on PlayStation 4

Unlocking new tracks and modes requires getting a fairly high amount of the board cleared. These modes change the way the game is played, but unlocking them require a very high level of skill. This is a bit obnoxious, as some of the boards are much easier to unlock other modes on than others. The difficulty will, of course, be relative from person to person; however, the levels don't follow a good difficulty curve from time to time.

Fortunately, for those tenacious enough to follow through, the other modes are very interesting. They are varied, and add a lot of replayability to the game. Even without the other modes, there are plenty of tracks to get lost in. There's clearly a lot to do within the confines of Chime Sharp, so even if you hit a brick wall with one track, there's plenty to do outside of it.

Chime Sharp is a great casual game that manages to be fairly difficult to master. However, it doesn't ever feel cheap, instead providing all the tools needed, and then asking players to succeed within their own imagination. It's uncommon for puzzle games to offer up this degree of freedom, and Chime Sharp is all the more powerful for it.

Screenshot for Chime Sharp on PlayStation 4

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

Chime Sharp is a powerful example of giving the player all the power they need to succeed. While at first it may seem a bit aimless, once you get a good grasp on what you're doing, it's genuinely exciting. With unlockable game modes for each track, and a great soundtrack, Chime Sharp is a casual game that should satiate any puzzle fan.

Developer

Chilled Mouse

Publisher

Chilled Mouse

Genre

Puzzle

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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