Droplitz

Some combination on the title? Unfortunately this is not a freak Atlus version of Dizzy's Adventures or anything. "Just" a simple puzzle game. Game is developed by Blitz, more accurately their arcade department. Atlus was the publisher for this 2009 title that recently has been on Steam sale for ridiculous low price.

To best describe Droplitz one could compare this a mixture between Lumines and Pipe Dream. The presentation taken from Lumines and game-play from Pipedream or its countless relatives. There is also a slight randomness which hinders the game being fully fledged skill based puzzle.

Game-play is relatively simple pipe connecting type game. Each of games 4 game modes use the same mechanism where connecting pipe must be set for the falling pellets. Tiles are rotated to make a path for pellets to find home. Once a path is complete a purple pellet will get dropped. After purple pellet finds the goal, the titles used in the working path are removed and new tiles are fallen into the game. While the purple pellet is traveling other paths can be created which each adding a multiplier to the score. Game has nine different level layouts with different sizes. Faster pellets and more tiles making the game increasingly challenging are added during the game. Each falling pellet that meets an dead end is added to the droplitz pile/meter. Which acts as a time-limiter.

Droplitz was referred to Lumines earlier in this text. This is more on the stylish look the levels have, which are also tied to the soundtrack. Each level changing complete theme. Music is light electronic tracks and unfortunately some tend to get annoying after a while. The different themes and crisp presentation added with the coin sound of creating combos reminded me a bit of online casino's slot games.

Only complaint I would have on Droplitz is the randomness factor. More often luck is required over to skills to rack a impressive scores. The plitz in the name imply a urgency which certainly can be found in later parts of the game with faster dropping pellets. Too much of the progress depends on which set of tiles you are randomly given. In a narrow level with with few straights path-tiles in strategically wrong places will hinder the progress completely. Despite this, the game is still a solid good looking puzzle if a bit on the casual side.