Blodia (TurboGrafx-16)

I get the feeling that this one isn't going to be pushing the TurboGrafx to its limits.

The title made me think it could be a shoot 'em up or an RPG, but it's obviously going to be a puzzle game.

Level select screens are always a welcome sight. Though it'd be nice if it had some welcome sound to go with it, instead of just leaving me here staring at cryptic pipe patterns in total silence.

I'll start with level 1, seeing as it'll probably be the easiest puzzle and it looks like the word 'GO'.

Hey, there is music after all! Arcady action music, like it's from a racing game.

Okay, the ball is rolling down the pipe, which disappears behind it as it goes. But I can slide tiles across into the empty square to change the layout of pipes. I've got no exit to take the ball to, so I guess it has to roll across and destroy all the tiles with pipe on them for me to win.


13 SECONDS LATER.

The hell? The ball rolls so fast, there's no way I could get the pieces shuffled around fast enough.

The ball reaches the end of the pipe segment, and falls off screen.

Wow, that's a pretty dramatic failure screen. The glass ball is cracked, and all is lost.

But it's all right, I can just try again.

Fuck! I really screwed up that time. I just don't get how I can possibly move these pieces around fast enough.

I admit, I am terrible at sliding tile puzzles, but this is ridiculous. It's only level 1! The game should be slowly introducing me to the concepts, not dropping me in the deep end and giving me 30 seconds to learn how to swim.

I honestly don't get what I'm meant to be doing here, I just can't figure it out at all.

What the fuck? I can slide more than one tile across at once! That changes everything.

Yeah, it turns out that this is a really simple starting level that can be finished in two moves.

'Try next level'? But I don't want to! I've got my level 1 victory, can't that be enough for now?

Considering how long it took me to solve a ridiculously easy puzzle, I'm not really interested in moving on to the harder ones.

Okay, level: 2. Well that's seems pretty much impossible. The game gives me infinite time to plan my moves before I start the ball rolling, but I'm gonna need more time than that to figure out the impossible.

Unless, the sides of the level wrap around. In that case this level would basically be... ridiculously easy!

Okay, I'm doing good, I'm getting some momentum going now. I can solve these.

Uh. Well, the first move is pretty simple I think.

And now, I'm lost.

Unless...

Come on, I can do this, I can do this! I just need to slide one tile down, then four tiles to the right...

Yeah I didn't even come close to having enough time to do that. Final result, ball shattering failure.


It seems like a perfectly decent little pipe sliding puzzle game, but I really have zero interest in it. I'm not really much of a fan of puzzle games in general, and this isn't an exception. Next game.