| Chokkan Hitofude review |
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Take a selection of beer mats or coasters, line them up and what happens? Nothing. They don't disappear, explode, or change colour. So who decided that was a reasonable concept in a game? Some of the most addictive games have involved lining up our four-sided friends, and watching them dissolve. Chokkan Hitofude (Intuitive Stroke) furthers the virtual genocide of the hapless square.
Only using the touch screen for control, Chokkan Hitofude asks of the player a simple task; clear the board of squares. The board is a grid of blocks, with a neutral zone around the perimeter; by simply using the stylus it's possible to flip the squares from white to black, or the other way round - a row of a single colour will make the completed line go to square heaven. All this is covered eloquently in the unbelievably straightforward tutorial.
The simple premise of completing rows is used in two main modes: Challenge and Checkmate. Checkmate is a series of 100 boards designed to tax, engage and educate the player. Starting with simple patterns the Checkmate mode introduces the player to the single stroke, in which a board can only be completed through removing all the rows with a single traced line over the required squares without crossing itself. A trace is started by prodding the desired square, then drawing along the squares until the final destination is reached, where an extra tap on the final square will cause the squares to flip over. It's possible to stop tracing and go back by tapping anywhere within the line created, and two large white-on-blue X buttons are present to completely wipe the mess that might have been made. The whole board doesn't have to be one colour, just each horizontal row, so it's entirely normal to vanquish a board of evil squares by having alternate/mixed row colours.
With the single stroke, the neutral zone - the single-block-width perimeter - comes into play. Weaving in and out of squares, using the neutral zone is very much an engrossing affair, and the variety of head-noodling board configurations is refreshing in its contempt for player sanity. Some boards have a simple geometric design, alternative colours and so on, but the more infuriating boards brashly mock with a smiling face, dinosaur silhouette or tree. The sequence the boards are presented in is very controlled and previously unthought of techniques are introduced and built upon then tested in much the same way a platform game will slowly introduce new skillsets to advance the game.
Because of the sheer audacity of the design and the infantile simplicity of the game, completing each and every board becomes a personal quest, and is exceedingly entertaining. If a board poses a drawn-out challenge, the top screen will eventually display a hint marker, and if that doesn't trigger anything, another hint icon will display. And if that isn't enough the top screen will also show that last failed attempt, in its glorious ineptitude. Failure can sometimes invert the colours and this can either bring about a mental renaissance or more head scratching.
If the 100 Checkmate boards aren't enough, it's possible to design personal tessellated terrors, and save them, or even generate codes and swap the dastardly design with other people. The official website has a few boards to test the very soul.
Where Chokkan Hitofude lets itself down is in the Challenge mode; after learning all the intricacies and subtle single-stroke manoeuvres in Checkmate, it would be reasonable to assume that Challenge consists of timed boards, in sequences. Unfortunately, this mode does something altogether more mundane. Over the two screens is an extended board, single lines or groups of lines will drop, and these have to be decimated using the acquired skills from Checkmate, minus the requirement to use one stroke to clear the board.
The “Levels” are based around the pool of rows that are thrown at the player. Some display a certain deft touch, and it is possible to wait around for multiple tiles to drop, eradicating a whole screen in one stroke for mega super points. As the Levels get harder, the pool of rows gets seemingly more random. It becomes more a race to flip tiles over to create false “All Clears” and “Chains”. The race against time and the eternal falling rows are quite invigorating to begin with, but in the end it turns into a scratchy, proddy mess - there's no grace, since the tracing mechanism is more suited to the cerebral controlled environment of the one-by-one board Checkmate mode. Frantically and precisely drawing through the desired blocks isn't the most cohesive experience; getting lost within a trace isn't uncommon, then having to reset the trace, and deal with the new rows now piled on top is all too clunky. The option to practice levels to learn the pools and the routines is available, but since the rows are provided in a pseudo-random fashion it just feels unfair.
Hiding in amongst the very stylized katakana is the function to “DS Download Play” a demo to anyone who happens to want it. This demo is a very cut-down version of the full game, offering a few boards and the like. For a full-on two-player experience, it'll take two Chokkan Hitofude cartridges to compete in a very familiar incarnation of the Challenge mode. Why it needs two cartridges for a seemingly simple game is baffling.
With its innoffensive music and congratulatory sounds, Chokkan Hitofude offers a refreshing reminder of what puzzle games should be about - simple brain-testing, logic-inducing entertainment. Of course this game wouldn't be quite so accessible without the touch screen and the second screen is used with a seamless functionality. The pickup-and-play nature of the Checkmate mode lends itself perfectly to the portable medium, but it's no more than a simple puzzle experience that can be found on millions of Desktop PCs. |
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System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Mitchell
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-2
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Jan 2005
Writer: Robert J. White
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Pros:
- Logictastic
- Simple Interface
- Good old-fashioned challenge
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Cons:
- Challenge mode is inept
- Two-player mode needs a cart each
- Checkmate is too short
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