With the aim of getting more content on this site, I decided to have a quick look at "qbqbqb". This unpronounceable game was part of a discounted game bundle, and playing it tonight I really wish I had gotten it sooner.

A worrying CMD prompt opened when hitting play before the game launched, but I was soon hit with bright colours, amazing bouncy space music with karaoke robots, and a game that starts off slow before assaulting you in a visual marvel.

qbqbqb was described as a tetris clone, this is inaccurate. qbqbqbq is a match-3 game, with several different ways of playing that help it stand out. Circular (Or Hex, Oct, Non) match-3 games have been done before, but I've not seen one with the different game modes this one has. Nor one with the level of polish and amount of love that has gone into it.

In each game 1 to 4 bricks fall towards a planet, you are tasked with matching them up on the surface as they stack. Make quick consecutive matches to score bonus combo points.
In a really bizarre scenario, the attract mode demo that was playing on startup unlocked the combo achievement for me!

Important to note is that you rotate the planet, not the brick. The result is the same, but it took a while to wrap my mind around the concept. There are various 'planets' to play on that provide a different visual theme and soundtrack, and each one is ever so slightly more challenging. While the level progression difficulty is low, each individual level will continually get harder as you play.

The order of in game difficulty for each game mode is ranked as follows.

• (EASY) Bricks can only be matched in stacks, adjacent bricks do not fulfil a match.
• (MEDIUM) Adjacent bricks can match, sometimes you get a brick two-stacks wide.
• (HARD) Bricks must be matched with the brick on the opposite side of the planet.

Personally I found the medium difficulty the one the easiest as it more closely followed what I was expecting out of the game.

As you stay longer in each level, you not only have to deal with faster falling bricks, but increased visual effects. Colours particle effects fly around, and may flash or vanish bricks. I tried to grab a screenshots where you can see this happening, as they are a large part of the game.

I didn't find it overwhelming on the individual levels, and it can be toned down a lot. This really messes with the charm and appeal of the game, so I'd recommend keeping it turned on. It may help to do so to learn the Co-OP and VS games though, especially if playing them in Hard (mirror) mode.

You can alter the starting falling speed of the bricks, and change the colour sets to make things easier with no penalty. Menus are easy enough to navigate and setting it all up is made clear to the player

There's a Co-Op component to this game which I for once made time to play. In a really crazy way, this game is Single Player, Co-Op, and Co-Op Single Player. It's the last one that really got my attention.

Selecting Co-Op from the main menu allows two players to play on the same level. OR one person to control two players. This is how those levels were designed! Like the main game difficulty starts off easy, but as the bricks keep falling faster and faster and you start making mistakes on which brick you are rotating, the game becomes a frantic mess while remaining entertaining.

I make no issues to hide that I tend to ignore the Multiplayer and Co-Op components to games, but qbqbqb's way of doing it was a nice change for those without the time, inclination, or friends to join up with.

There is a proper 2-player VS mode, where each person has their own planet and races to see who can last the longest. And yes. You can play this solo as well, which is utterly amazing and deserves points if this site gave them out.

qbqbqb really surprised me. It is not at all what I thought it would be from the screenshots, which suggested a COOP/MP focused title I'd pass on and not bother writing anything up for.

I don't play puzzles as often as I used to, and honestly do feel that I wish I had known better and grabbed this when it showed up in 2014.

If you like match-3 or tetris games, qbqbqb should be one on your list to grab next.

Game Acquisition: Purchased on Sale (Bundle Stars)
Platform Used: Steam
Tweet Thread: 1 - 26 February 2016
PC Used: Scorptec Venom 2009

OS: XP
Processor: Pentium 4
Memory: 1024 MB RAM
Storage: 100 MB available space