I’m a sucker for music-based puzzlers. The Lumines series remains a fond favorite of mine because of the way it seamlessly blends head-noddingly good licensed music with shape-slotting puzzles, all presented in bright, glowing, flashing festivals of color. Also of note during that time was the similar Chime Super Deluxe, blending the musical talents of Moby, Lemon Jelly, and Orbital among others with that shape-slotting goodness to good effect. Still, as good as was, it was in the shadow of Lumines. Now, six years after Super Deluxe, belated follow up Chime Sharp has an open goal on PS4, it makes for a rather extravagant tap-in.
As with the original Chime, the objective is to tessellate shapes until they cover boards of different sizes with varying shapes that snap together, with the idea being that you leave no empty spaces between them. You make an initial 3×3 ‘quad’ shape from the available pieces, and then you get a few seconds to continue adding and building on to that initial shape to increase your score. The more shapes you create, the higher your score multiplier goes and the more points you earn, all the while maintaining a good flow of speed against the level’s time limit. These blocks and quads act as musical notes, activated when the beatline goes across the screen. It can feel somewhat confusing at first, even a little intimidating (more on that later), but it isn’t long before the game ensnares you in its hypnotic musical web and drains your free time like a spider drains the life out of an insect. After one lengthy session, I found my hands aching, and my eyes sore, such was the trance Chime Sharp put me into. It’s just absolutely spellbinding, and there’s so many reasons for that.
When you start Chime for the first time, you get just a single mode to play with (the previously mentioned time-based mode). The time limit can be extended via bonuses as you cover previously empty space on the board. The multiplier doesn’t do anything to extend your time, but it does keep your score ticking over at a healthy rate. Racing against time in the final seconds of the stage is a frenetic experience that brings out Chime Sharp’s zen-like trance effect, as you can keep the clock at bay by creating new quads in those previously untouched areas of the board, but only for a matter of seconds, so getting into the groove becomes essential. Once you hit 90% coverage on the board, a completely new level becomes available, carrying on immediately after the end of the previous stage. It also opens the additional modes for that same level.
Sharp mode tasks you with similar parameters, but throws in an energy bar that is diminished by any unused pieces you fail to get to before they vanish. Health can be reclaimed however, by building perfect quads, a tricky feat at the best of times. It’s a pleasant switch-up on the standard setup. Practice is literally on board, not giving you the freedom of the whole selection disappointingly. It’s pretty pointless as it teaches you nothing you can’t learn by playing.
The only other thing I took issue with is how ambiguous the parameters for success are in standard mode. You just don’t get any real explanation of the standard mode whereas the unlockable modes have at least a brief explanation in the menu. How you advance your multiplier, what resets it, why pieces eventually vanish after a time, none of it is clearly defined. Happily, things aren’t too difficult to figure out, but a little more consistency with descriptions would have been grand.
Despite that minor hiccup, Chime Sharp is still very easy to pick up and just ‘get it’ within minutes, and mastery thankfully takes some effort and concentration if you’re wanting to complete every single board. You’ll have your frustrating moments, sure, but the patience you put in is worth the rewarding feeling you get from absolutely bossing a stage.
On the technical front, Chime Sharp is a clear step up from its progenitor in almost every single way. Visually-speaking, Chime Sharp is still simplistic, yet the finer details, such as particle effects, and the pulsing warning glow of a combo soon to be lost, pop with mesmerising, colorful vibrancy. The general sound effects are muted, yet pleasing, never interfering with the music, rather working in tandem with it. That’s smart because the soundtrack is another much improved aspect of Chime Sharp.
The original Chime had a fine soundtrack, yet Chime Sharp’s electronica/dance collection supersedes it in impressive style. The likes of Kavinsky and Chvrches are among the selection, and I can’t think of a single duff track in the whole bunch of fifteen. The music itself is as dynamic as ever, as each track is adorned with ambient beats and tones, added on as you snap pieces together and fill up each board. It’s a thing of joyous majesty.
Chime Sharp is a single player-only experience sadly, making a fairly stripped back set of modes appear somewhat light, but what the game does have in its arsenal is so well-polished, so mesmerizingly enjoyable, it matters very little. If anything the paucity of options brings a purity to the package, a reminder of what these kinds of puzzlers tick in the years gone by. Anything else would likely be a little too much icing for this proverbial gaming cake.
I don’t normally like to call games ‘addictive,’ as it seems like a lazy bit of praise, yet here I am, about to say that Chime Sharp is devilishly addictive. Chime Sharp is devilishly addictive and one of the finest 2D puzzlers of the past few years.