CROSSNIQ+ Game Sample - PC/Indie
20This game...... needs more love!
Developed by the studio, FUTURE MEMORY, primarily led by one person, Max Krieger, an indie game developer from Cleveland with aspirations of working in the big leagues, it is a greatly overhauled version of his first game, the free-to-play "Crossniq", but even that would be putting it mildly. Described as a "speed-focused, arcade-style puzzle game inspired by y2k-era visual design" and "a tribute to highly polished, small-scope Japanese games from the late 90's", the game feels like a fully authentic puzzler of the time from its slick visuals and flashy U.I. down to its stellar d'n'b soundtrack and whimsical characters. It's also got several configurations that will cater to players of nearly any skill level and several unlockables that can be gained with in-game currency as well as secret codes to access content faster. There isn't really a "main" mode or story mode of sorts and there are a few modern touches, for better or worse, but what is here is still quite enjoyable, easy to learn, but hard to master.
The goal of the game is simple: slide tiles around to form "crosses" that reset your timer so you can keep playing. As the game's clock runs down and you gain more points, you'll increase your level as well the timer's speed and encounter two obstacles - lock and freeze tiles. Locks can be moved around but cannot wrap the screen while freeze tiles can't be moved at all, vertically or horizontally. Your job is to eliminate the tiles that these objects are on or tiles that are adjacent to them to clear them from the playing field. You have to be careful though, as you'll also get access to star tiles that offer additional points and you can't get points for them unless you eliminate them directly. You can gain more points the faster you make crosses, creating chains (Good, Great, Master, etc.), as well as eliminating more than two lines at once.
The rules are further complicated in the game's hi-octane versus mode where you can select various characters with unique abilities as well as select up to four overall abilities (items) to help level the playing field. Vs. introduces a see-saw battle timer as you form chains, attacks and counterattacks that can be dished out, abilities to drop freeze and tile blocks, make the field color-blind, lower visibility, and more. You can also set markers to move multiple tiles at once which is helpful on large boards or for advanced players and, if you're feeling really gutsy, both players can initiate sudden death to settle things quickly. It's all quite involved and the game also features a Time Attack mode, Local Multiplayer with online leaderboards, a mode for just chilling, and a few items you can buy such as additional abilities, soundtracks from the original game, and additional costumes that also changes the banter characters exchange in the Versus Mode. As the game is designed with the Unity engine, you can expect a small amount of graphic configuration options as well before the game launches.
While a few quality of life additions would do the game even more justice, like a proper sound test (you CAN find the soundtrack online at https://crossniqplus.bandcamp.com/alb...), a VS CPU mode, column binding could be a little more intuitive, etc., but there's a fair amount of game here for the fair price of $8 on Steam. It's also available for the Nintendo Switch for the same price and makes for a great portable puzzler. Lastly, the game goes on sale pretty often, so you can look out for a discount too.
This is a video of various things in the game and teaching a friend how to play in Versus. You can get the game at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/11...
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail...
Enjoy.
- ADDITION -
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