Grindstone Game Review

It feels kind of stimulating, honestly, since on the whole Grindstone is not mainly revolutionary and that lack of IAP respire a bit more life into what might have been a pretty run-of-the-mill puzzler. every stage is more or less the same: you start with a screen filled with monsters, and you require to chart a path during them by matching the right colours.

Each monster you slay will adjoin to your score for the level, and formerly a certain threshold is met the gate will open and allow you to run off to the next stage. in time other wrinkles are added, such as beefier enemies that will assault you in specific ways and treasure chests that need to be not closed.

There are also the titular grindstones, which are prismatic gems that let you switch colours mid-path.

I say it’s not innovative since I’m pretty sure we’ve all played games with at slightest one of these explicit mechanics before, and just a swift glance at some of the screenshots will perhaps repeat you of dozens of games over the App Store’s 11-year history that it was inspired by.

Still, that doesn’t mean it’s not fun or merit your time, and Grindstone is completely both of those things.

To start with, the visuals are unbelievable. It has kind of a modern Cartoon Network vibe with splashy colours, overstated animations, and just the least edge of adultness (which spell-check guarantee me is a word) in its over-the-top stab.

Seeing your character stomp and hack his way through enemies, again and again, is very rewarding, and the squishy sound effects are the gross cherry on top.

The level of challenge also feels right, though it took me a while to be grateful for it. At first, the stages felt a bit small and confined, and it could be annoying trying to find a long enough path to defeat definite enemies or get to the point goal to finish the level.

But after a few minutes, the board will roughly always begin to fill up with grindstones and other special parts (which are also used as crafting material for better gear and power-ups) that let you create longer chains more easily. despite my apparent bad luck at preliminary each stage without many options, I roughly always managed to finish every goal without a lot of problems.

As for the goals themselves, there are (regularly) three in each level: Opening the door, unchain the chest, and stealing the Slob’s crown. The first is the only one you have to worry about if you want to beat the stage and stir on, but you will finally need chests for crafting materials and crowns to undo further stages down the road.

It’s sort of like the Three Star system establish in other games, where you don’t need to go for all of them every time, but it’s a nice inducement for completionists.

In all, Grindstone is a very pleasing identical puzzler with an evenly satisfying price. I do have my qualms that the novelty of getting what is in core an extremely free-to-play game but with all the voracious aspects uninvolved might be colouring my acuity and making me think it’s more undeniable than it is.

Maybe in a substitute universe where the word “fermium” never existed and this exact game cost $5 I wouldn’t find it predominantly special. But we don’t live in that world, and it’s hard to dispute that the game doesn’t look cool and play well.

And it’s surely very fun, with an insane number of stages to play during. If you’re longing for one of these gem-matching puzzle games but be apt to shy away from free-to-play stuff, I believe you’ve found your new compulsion in Grindstone.