Levels: Addictive Puzzle Game

Overview

Levels: Addictive Puzzle Game (known in Japan as Levels: Chuudoku Puzzle) is an indie free-to-play tile-matching puzzle game developed and released by flow for iOS and Android devices on May 17, 2016.

A panel-sliding touchscreen puzzle game similar to the games 2048 and Threes!, players are given a 5x5 grid of panels in three colors: blue (for friendly warriors), yellow (for treasure), and red (for enemy monsters) and must combine two panels to upgrade warriors, collect treasure, and defeat enemies until no more moves are available.

As the game is free-to-play, it includes both in-game advertisements and microtransactions (where players can purchase limited-use "Thunder Stone" power-ups that change some red panels to yellow ones).

It later received a port for the Nintendo Switch on July 13, 2017 as Levels+: Addictive Puzzle Game (or Levels+: Chuudoku Puzzle in Japan), revamping the in-game graphics while adding sound and music, standard controller support, and adding minor gameplay improvements (such as displaying the upcoming panel). Unlike the original, this version is not free-to-play and does not include in-game ads.

The Switch version of the game was also ported to Japanese arcades on August 6, 2020 as Levels VS: Chuudoku Puzzle. Digitally released by Taito via NESiCAxLive2 for PC-based Taito Type X3 hardware, this version updates the gameplay for arcade play (such as adding timers for making moves) while adding a new two-player competitive multiplayer mode (where each player has their own board and attacks the other with yellow "magic" panels).

The soundtrack for the Switch version was composed by Kevin Macleod, which was later used as the Single Mode for the Arcade version. The soundtrack for the Arcade version's VS Mode was composed by Daisuke Shiiba.

Gameplay

Players are given a 5x5 grid of panels of three colors (blue for friendly "warriors", yellow for "treasure", and red for enemy "monsters") and must utilize the touchscreen (or, for Switch and Arcade versions, a cursor) to drag one panel on top of another, performing one of the following actions:

• Blue warrior panels can be upgraded by combining two of the same level, forming a blue panel of the next highest level.

• Yellow treasure panels can also be upgraded by combing two of the same level, forming a yellow panel of the next highest level. They can also be "collected" by blue warrior panels that are either the same level or higher.

• Red monster panels can only be destroyed by blue warrior panels that are either the same level or higher.

Moving a panel also shifts the current row or column to fill the gap, creating a new random panel at the edge (with red panels having the level of the current difficulty).