Sumico Review

Wow my tag line, it really needs to be talked about first, I cannot sum this game up better, but I still feel a little bit offensive and snobby, but hey, you are on a game website, you should know the score! Sumico is yet another puzzler on the 3DS Eshop that uses the touch screen, there is a lot in there already, why do you need another? In my honest opinion, here’s why!

I have already referenced Candy Crush, if you don’t know what it is it’s that horrible free to play mobile rubbish that is destroying gaming as we know it, that game the non gamers seem to love, you can’t go on Facebook with out messages about it (I believe I don’t do Facebook myself), it charges you for extra lives or something, I don’t really know, I just know it is garbage!

Basically it ripped off Bejewelled in play style, but I am not here to go into the history of that horrid franchise today. What I am getting at is the fact Sumico has a similar line up mechanic, in Candy Crush, Bejewelled, Puzzle Quest or whatever happens to be the flavour of the month you line up the same coloured tile and they disappear and that is basically the game. I will say I did enjoy Puzzle Quest and Bejewelled like ten years ago or something, but this is quite the different animal indeed. You are lining up tiles the same way, but it is in a way where you incorporate maths to make them disappear.

Yes, maths, in a game, just like Doctor Kawashima’s Brain Training and yes it works quite well. The blocks are filled as mentioned already with numbers, but also plus and minus signs. You drag your stylus over the numbers and calculation signs to create another number. The game gives you numbers to target too, which can complicate things. This is just a taster, things grow, different challenges present themselves, weather it be timing or a tight playing board, the game has a nice variety within it’s puzzles it presents.

At its price point, I would say it is a bargain, but remember it is a maths puzzle game, it is nowhere near any bigger game in presentation. You are dealing with one screen only, the music is minimalist, if you don’t like plain games maybe you should move on. While I would say at the same time, it is functional, it does it’s job quite well.

The devil is in the detail here, while I am not a maths wizard, I found it quite addictive all the same. There is a lot of levels, a lot of challenges within those levels, the variation is good, there is even an endless mode to be played. I found it quite tough at points, but not to the point where I quit, even though you do find that you have to quit sometimes. It comes to you gradually but at the same time to challenge rises, but I would point out it was never too frustrating. There is about seventy levels to be played too, which is a good amount of playtime to be had too! While I wouldn’t say this is a Tetris beater, but I really would say it is up about it, it is fresh, it is unique and quite honestly it is criminal this hasn’t went mainstream.

Wow again, that was a strong statement, but that is what I feel myself. Is there something that holds back a challenging game like this compared to a Candy Crush type game. Is it that it under promoted, are people too stupid to want to play Sumico, Candy Crush has bright colours and flashy music, is that the difference? Who knows really, but I know I have a good game in Sumico and I will be talking about it for a long time after this. If you like puzzles, if you like a proper mind bending challenge, at this price point it would be criminal to miss out on this one!

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.