Droplitz (XBLA)

Droplitz is a puzzle game revolving around a set of mis-matched pipes, which you use to create paths from the top of the screen to the bottom. While you’re working, little bits of liquid - the titular "Droplitz" - will be falling, and you use these paths to make sure the Droplitz don’t hit a dead end. Losing a few is okay, but if too many fail to reach their destination, it’s game over. The game is easy to learn, since you only use the d-pad or one analog stick plus four buttons; one to fast-forward the water flow, two to rotate, and one to use power-ups in certain modes. But the game gets increasingly hard as you go along, to the point where later stages and modes really can’t qualify as a ’casual game.’ Whether that’s good or bad is subjective, I admit.

The game offers four modes: Classic, Zendurance, Power Up, and Infection. Classic plays exactly like I described above, with the twist that later stages get much harder. A typical Classic session could last anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour, depending on how good you are and how lucky your pipe drops are since pipes used in any successful drop vanish. Zendurance plays very much like Classic mode, but it stays at a constant and very high difficulty; it’s not uncommon to run out of Droplitz within ninety seconds or less. Power-Up and Infected ostensibly add power-ups to the mix, but I can’t give you any firsthand info with them for one reason: I haven’t unlocked them. Doing well in Classic unlocks Zendurance, which in turn can unlock Power-Up, and Power-Up can unlock Infected.

Unfortunately, I’m not a bad enough dude to rescue the water drops in Zendurance mode. I was able to get that mode unlocked, but no matter how hard I try I seem to make only tiny improvements in my score and I don’t see myself unlocking the Power-Up or Infected modes any time soon. Perhaps I’m missing something, but if so I don’t seem to be alone in having that problem. In any event, it leaves me in the bizarre situation of reviewing a game where I can only access half of its content because it’s just so difficult.

The music and graphics deserve special note, because while simple in design, they both do their jobs very well. The music is subtle and relaxing, perfect for drawing the player into the game. The graphics in turn are very vibrant, and offer several different color themes to pick from. This is a puzzle game that looks and sounds good, and this did a lot to bring me back to Classic Mode repeatedly. Thus I would say that the core of the game is sound but the additional modes were not to my liking.

Droplitz is 800 Points/$10, but whether it’s worth that to you depends on a few things. Are you a fan of relatively simple puzzle games, would you enjoy something that offers a fair challenge in some modes while being very difficult in the others? Are you willing to accept that you might not see those other modes? If you’re buying it just as a basic puzzle game to play in short bursts, Droplitz is definitely fun. On the other hand, if you’re a completionist... this will either be right up your alley, or drive you nuts. Puzzle games aren’t quite my strong suit, but I found Droplitz to be reasonably entertaining.