Vitamini is a $2 independent puzzle game with some interesting physics and three rather different gameplay modes. These modes are called “Cubes,” “Chains,” and “Shapes,” and all three are slight changes on the basic colored-block puzzle games of the past. However, the controls are more original, as blocks aren’t constrained to the grid laid out behind them, but are rather allowed to float and rotate freely with a really surprisingly enjoyable physics system. The controls are pitch perfect, and it’s sort of fun to smash blocks around the screen.
Unfortunately, none of the three puzzle game designs inside really utilize the fun from the physics. “Chains” comes the closest, as same-colored blocks become attached by short strings when they come in contact. Depending on the level, a certain length of chain must be reached before those blocks are cleared. Because the blocks fall down the screen already attached to blocks of different colors, these strings restrict movement in a fun way on later levels, forcing you to really play around with blocks like a game of “Twister” to get all the blocks you want to attach. It takes some patience to get to this fun game, though, as the easier levels of the game don’t really require much thought, and can reduce the player to boredom very quickly. Simply holding down the spacebar to release new blocks into the area is a very successful strategy for these early levels, which shows just how simple and boring they are. The difficulty ramps up quickly, as time pressure decreases your “energy” gauge on the right side of the screen, which ends the game when it runs out.
The other game modes are less original, and don’t use the physics engine’s strengths. “Cubes” simply requires that you touch a certain number of blocks together to get them cleared, losing the fun strings mechanic. “Shapes” uses the mouse and lets you take your time to switch blocks with one another so that each “shape” of several blocks is one color only. Both of these suffer from the same problem with “Chains” in that they present no challenge at all for too many levels.
The game design and balancing is a little rough in that regard, but the presentation is surprisingly tight. While not up to the professional benchmark of the PSP’s Lumines, it comes closer than you might expect a $2 game to come. There is only one piece of music used in the title, but it’s a fairly satisfying and relaxing melody that is tuned to work well with the sound effects in the game. The GUI has some good animations and looks well-designed, but again, there is only one graphic idea, rather than one that changes on different levels like Lumines does.
According to the Vitamini blog http://vitaminigame.com/blog, the game was unsuccessfully pitched to Sony and Nintendo, as well as Steam, the PC game download service. It’s easy to see why, but the game is closer to being at that level than it may seem at first. Adding new songs would keep the interest up as levels progressed. The game also needs balancing to make sure that gamers don’t get bored by the time the game kicks into gear. But the hard work has been done, the framework is there for a solid puzzle game. Vitamini as it is can’t really be called a finished product, but at only $2, is worth looking at. The music alone is nearly worth it.
Nathaniel Edwards is a writer who specializes in covering controversial video games, the subject of his blog at http://www.legalarcade.com. He serves as gaming writer for http://www.kidzworld.com and contributes articles and reviews for BlogCritics Magazine.
thx for reading
