Puzzle gaming at its finest, and at a cheep price too
If there's one thing the Wii has no short supply of, it's puzzle games. The latest one to hit, Art Style: Rotohex may not do anything different from all the other ones out there, but it's still a really fun and addictive puzzle game.
Rotohex is one those games that sounds simple, but is really quite challenging. The game tasks you with hexagons with the triangles found on the playing field. Making Hex's (which are what the game calls the hexagons) is pretty easy in the beginning, but it can get difficult pretty quickly. The main cause of that is that the rate the triangles fall at is increased over time, and other colors are introduced as well. The number of colors in play can make it difficult to make Hex's quickly when triangles are falling in at very fast rate.
But thankfully the game doesn't increase the difficulty that quickly in most of the modes. Sprint mode (one of the four game modes) is the only one that extremely difficult from the beginning. This mode starts you off with a half-full playing field, and has more triangles falling in at very fast rate. The goal here is to form six Hex's of a particular color in the fastest time possible. This is, of course, much easier said than done. It doesn't take very long for the playing field to be filled, which makes forming Hex's very difficult. It's a fun mode, and provides a nice change of pace from the other modes; especially sense two of 'em are basically the same mode.
Solo and Endless, share so many similarities that they might as well have combined the two modes into one. Both modes task you with simply making Hex's, the only difference between the two is that Solo mode tasks you with making six Hex's for the eight colors the mode throws at you. While Endless--as the name implies--won't end until the playing field is full. Out of the two modes, Endless is the one with more replay value. Solo will probably stop getting any playtime once you've unlocked Endless and Sprint mode, seeing as Solo doesn't keep track of high scores, whereas the other modes do. But considering that the game doesn't feature any leaderboards, the fact that Solo mode doesn't keep track of your high scores probably isn't a big deal.
Still, it's disappointing that there's no leaderboards, especially sense that's pretty much standard for puzzle games these days. The game is still good without it, but even so, it would have been a nice addition, along with online multiplayer.
Speaking of which, the multiplayer in Rotohex is pretty much the same as the multiplayer modes found in other puzzle games. The mode allows up to two players to compete to fill the other player's playing field, which is accomplished by making enough Hex's for black triangles to start falling into the other players area, which will fill there playing field a lot faster. The mode isn't anything special, but it's still really fun.
The presentation is pretty nice as well. The mirrored edges of the playing field are a nice little touch, and the soundtrack is good as well. The only real problem with the presentation is that it isn't much of an upgrade from its Game Boy Advance counterpart, Dialhex.
All in all, Rotohex doesn't do anything new or different, but it more than makes up for it with its addictive gameplay. And at 600 Nintendo Points ($6) you'll get plenty of hours of entertainment for hardly any money at all. There may be plenty of other puzzle games on the Wii, but Rotohex is still well worth a look from anyone looking for a good puzzle game for real cheap.
