Six games into the Art Style series, and I still have yet to encounter a dud. My sixth game was Art Style: precipice (aka Art Style: KUBOS), and it's a change of pace as it has a sort of platformer feel to it. This game precedes the game Catherine, which has a similar type of cube climbing mechanic (at least from what I can tell after playing through the opening sections of that game), by about a year and a half. In any case, in general your goal is to get your little character to ever higher floors while avoiding being crushed by falling cubes and having the floor fall out from under you. Along the way you also defuse bombs to collect your one block-clearing attack, make lines to get bonus points and health, and push and pull cubes around to try to complete the aforementioned advantageous lines.
I wasn't sure what to expect, fearing at worse a sort of tedium like I'd felt while playing Wario's Woods, but the game was (as usual) wonderfully addictive, esp. once I found out that you could actually move blocks around. Getting the ending of the main mode was wholly satisfying, and although the endless mode is entertaining, it's much less of an essential experience. The game, as I've come to expect, is polished until it gleams, but also has some moments of charm and chuckles. In short, it's a classic Art Style experience, and one I fully relished.
The geniuses at skip Ltd. game have produced a game that is every bit as enjoyable and unique as any of the others in the series. This game, like many in the series, would be ripe for multiplayer modes, and would also be a perfect fit for the glasses-free 3D of the 3DS. Also, although I'll be revisiting it for the endless mode, just one or two more modes would've pushed this up into my greatest games of all time list. In any case, this is easily one of the best games I've played in a long time, and although I only have one other DSiware game in the series left to play, I'm glad I still have the rest of the WiiWare and GBA games to look forward to. It's safe to say that my growing love for this series is only rivaled by my love for Nintendo's core series like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, and in many ways surpasses them as each game is completely distinct. I have a feeling I'm going to have to take up proselytizing for this series on a regular basis in the hopes that it gains new converts and hopefully new entries!
Surmount these Art Style: precipice links:
- Review at NintendoLife
- Entertaining (and philosophical) review at Kotaku