Papertris – Switch Review

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Papertris is a match 3 game from Germany-based Father and 2 sons developer Paper Games. It is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

Today we will be looking at the Nintendo Switch version which will set you back £4.49/$4.99 at the time of writing and will require 346MB of storage.

Not Quite Tetris in Name, Not Quite Tetris in Nature

Everything from the name and the looks of the game tells you this is going to be something akin to Tetris. But no, not quite. It does feature falling blocks and you do have to make them disappear. But that’s about where the similarities end.

Level design is intended to look like the squared sheets in a maths work book. In the top left is your highscore, current score, blocks cleared and combo. In the top right is the timer and what blocks will be next.In the middle is the play are which is set back and has multie coloured blocks. When 3 or more blocks of the same colour are toutching, the disappear.
Blocks, blocks, blocks, and more blocks!

Gameplay

Papertris is a match 3 game. You know the sort, make 3 or more of the same block touch and poof! Bye-bye, blocks! It features power-up blocks that I never quite worked out how they work. They are the typical match 3 power-ups. Make a big explosion and take the surrounding blocks out, or blast a whole row or column.

The problem is, the game never makes it clear what this power-up will be when the block falls, so you can’t really use it to your advantage. There are also blocks that will change all the colours of the blocks it lands on top of and blocks that keep the colours hidden until it lands so you can’t put it where you need it.

There are 2 modes, Challenge and Endless Mode. Challenge Mode has things such as destroying X amount of this colour block or destroying the blocks marked with X already on the play area. Endless Mode is, well, an endless mode. Just keep playing until you fail. Every 20 blocks you destroy increases the pace and goes up a level. Every 100 blocks you destroy adds another colour. You can also start at levels you’ve already reached so you don’t have to start over every time.

Level design is intended to look like the squared sheets in a maths work book.The labels on the screen from top to bottom read, "1 player", "Challenge mode, level 1", "Endless Mode, Start Level 1" and "Back"
Pick your poison.

Simpler Isn’t Always Better

The early parts of the game don’t pose much of a challenge. But when you get into it, the game will increase the pace, increase the number of colours and sometimes you will have a layer of blocks behind that you have to destroy. That last one admittedly did make for a more interesting challenge.

Level design is intended to look like the squared sheets in a maths work book. In the top left is your highscore, current score, blocks cleared and combo. In the top right is the timer and what blocks will be next.In the middle is the play are which is set back and has multie coloured blocks. When 3 or more blocks of the same colour are toutching, the disappear.
Ogres have layers. Papertris has layers!

All of the falling blocks are just 3 vertical blocks. You can change the order of the colours, but that is it. I would have liked to have seen them take a bit more from Tetris. Add in some other shapes. Allow me to rotate them. Let me swap the current block for the next one. Anything to mix-it up a bit, as it can all become a bit mundane, if I’m completely honest.

Graphics & Audio

I loved the hand-drawn look of the game. I was that kid who would go through far too many workbooks at school filling them with doodles, so this took me back to that. The blocks falling from the sides and rolling down the mountain of blocks below look cool. It offers a dark mode, if you prefer, which I did. Visually, it’s a very nice game. Unless you’re colourblind that is. Now don’t get me wrong, Papertris technically has a colourblind mode. It’s just not very good.

Level design is intended to look like the squared sheets in a maths work book. In the top left is your highscore, current score, blocks cleared and combo. In the top right is the timer and what blocks will be next.In the middle is the play are which is set back and has multie coloured blocks. This screen shows 2 different games. The left has colourblind mode turned off, the right has colourblind mode turned on.
Left: Colourblind mode off. Right: Colourblind mode on.

Now I did run this image by 2 Thumb Culture staff who are colourblind. Both of them agreed that with it turned on, the colours were too washed out and the symbols were too small to differentiate the block. Especially if you’re playing your Switch in handheld mode. It’s great that they thought about this, but the execution was lacking.

I had no complaints about the soundtrack. It’s not going to win any awards, but it fits the game well enough and wasn’t distracting.

Longevity

I think for Papertris, this is tricky. There is certainly enough to keep you playing for a long time. I just personally wasn’t entertained enough to keep playing. You could play through Challenge Mode or Endless Mode for hours, and the ability to play 2 player is nice. I just couldn’t imagine playing this for an extended period of time.

Final Thoughts

I feel like I’ve been quite harsh. Papertris certainly isn’t a bad game and it definitely achieves what it sets out to do, it’s just not very exciting. I wish it had higher ambitions. It looks beautiful and piqued my interest when I first saw it. It just didn’t keep that interest, unfortunately.

Papertris blocks out a Thumb Culture Bronze Award for itself.

 

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

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