Hexcite Game by Ubi Soft Reviewed by chromie bkerr@umich.edu Size: 8 MB Save: Battery Released: 1999 Works with: Any Game Boy, but nice Game Boy Color enhancements **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Ubi Soft, maker of racing games and genre-busting adventureish games for the PC--and here they are on the Game Boy publishing scene, with a couple lame licensed games, and Hexcite. I like Ubi Soft, so I was drawn to Hexcite simply as a way to see what sort of game they were interested in throwing their money at for the Game Boy console. Looks like good news, folks. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Description: Hexcite is a puzzle game with very snazzy production values. Essentially, the game is two-player turn-based puzzler based on geometric pattern recognition, and it's very entertaining. You start with a chinese-checker-board looking layout, and a bunch of little regular polygon pieces, from triangles up to trapezoids. You and the opponent, human or computer, take turns placing the pieces, winning points for the number of sides of the pieces you place touch the sides of other pieces. You get a few bonus points for certain things, and you lose points at the end of each round for each piece you have left over. This description is abstract because the game is totally visual--which makes it very easy to catch on to, and hard to describe. It plays with the cerebral intensity of chess, but the pace of play is more like Tetris. In addition, it is totally customizeable--from your opponent's AI, to the ground rules, to the number of rounds played, even sound effects, music, and board colors can be altered. Liked: It's like those things you order on TV--simple enough for a child, yet challenges even adults. Hated: It's almost too simple, and easy to give up on if you're not in the right mood. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The graphics are pretty good. Considering that the game is about moving colored polygons around, they're just fine. The colors are bright and bold, and if they were any more flashy, I'm afraid they would slow down gameplay or be distracting. Kudos to the developers for little touches like the menu screen backgrounds, scalable fonts, and the general elegance of the visual presentation. Liked: Clean, smooth. Pretty in an art-deco sort of way. Hated: Hexcite screams for insults by being a Game Boy Color game that is primarily white on black. Sometimes it is a bit pretentious, actually, in its restrained look. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Here's the rub. Hexcite has 10 background songs that you can choose from at the Options menu--and they're all repetitious and too fast for the game. Consider playing a game of chess to jazz--that's Hexcite for you. I end up either changing the song between every game, or just turning the music off. Sound effects are a bit sparse and kooky, and they work surprisingly well. Liked: Fun sound effects that aren't standard console beeps. Hated: Silly music. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Here's where Hexcite shines. The game is, as I have written, totally customizeable. I enjoy being able to change the colors, and turn some of the strange rules on and off. The different levels of AI aren't just progessively more and more perfect. Even at higher skill levels, the computer will occasionally make a mistake and ignore some facet of its move, giving you lots of points on your turn. In addition, it does neat things, like flipping through selected pieces while it thinks about its turn. The Hexcite AI does a fabulous job of not acting like a computer, and not playing like a computer. You can save and load games whenever you like, which is a plus. You can also replay the most recent games you've played, allowing you to figure out where, and how, you messed a round up. There is a fabulous tutorial--I never really read the manual, as the online tutorial is split into sections that walk you through everything from what messing around in the menus does to advanced gameplay strategies. Don't forget the Problems section, which takes a bead from the nerdy and infinitely popular pastime of inventing and solving chess problems. The 50 problems in Hexcite involve a small number of pieces, and give you a specific objective to beat the problem. If you fail to solve a problem, you get a useful and subtle hint before you try it again. Even so, I doubt I will ever be able to complete all of the problems. Last but not least, there are little things to discover, like scrolling messages from the producers if you leave a certain screen active for long enough, that demonstrate that Hexcite is really a labor of love. Liked: Convincing AI. Excellent supplementary help, tutorials, problems. Hated: The game could use a computer mouse control option, but that would bode poorly for playing in the 'horizontal athlete' position. **************************************************************************** Improve: There's really not a lot to improve here. A mindbending puzzle game is of course a niche product at best, especially one like this that's not based on any existing board game or franchise or children's film (yes, I'm bitter :). Hexcite isn't blockbuster material, but it is a good puzzle game in an astounding package. RIYL: Chessmaster, Yoshi, Zoop. **************************************************************************** Final Words: If Hexcite sounds cool, you'll probably like it. If it sounds dull, boring, and not cool, well, it's probably not gonna be. But as far as playability, and fun/frustration, Hexcite is a very impressive little cartridge. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: **** Graphics: *** Sound/Music: ** Play Control/Game Design: ***** Personal Opinion: *** Total: 18 out of 25 Final Score: 72% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: None yet!