Lines XL

Genre: Numberlink Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Lines XL is so similar to its predecessors Lines X and Lines Infinite are such similar games that I’m now going to copy-paste the majority of its review. I mean, if they can do it, why can’t I, right? The newest game in this series, Lines XL was released on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Lines XL is a Numberlink Puzzle game that has you connecting various colored dots in a grid to other similarly-colored dots, all while filling every spot on the grid and not crossing those lines. It’s a formula that’s already been done countless times on the Switch, but I suppose here’s another one.

To the game’s credit, it does boast a nice, minimalist presentation. Nothing extraordinary, but it feels a bit classy. There’s also some nice, soothing music to go along with your play.

Unfortunately, the minimalist approach also hurts the game. It would have been nice to be able to select a color scheme, or have some sort of options regarding the presentation. However, aside from the level select, this game has nothing beyond the puzzles – not even a title screen, pause screen or options screen. The earlier Lines games were pretty bare-bones too, but this is even more so.

What Lines XL does boast above its predecessors is a huge assortment of puzzles – 500, to be precise. While this is a huge number next to the 100 pre-made puzzles each of the prior games has, Lines Infinite arguably has more, with its procedurally-generated puzzles providing a potentially limitless supply. Also, I’ll say that while I had some issues with controls in the earlier games, they seemed fine this time around, both using traditional controls and the touchscreen.

I’m frustrated by the Lines series, because while it has a nice, minimalist presentation that works well for this genre, this minimalism has consistently extended to the features, and that is an issue that has somehow gotten worse in Lines XL, even as the number of puzzles have greatly expanded (although Lines Infinite still arguably lays claim to that title with an unending assortment of puzzles). As a result, Lines XL feels like it takes one step forward and one step back, both for the series and for Numberlink games in general.

tl;dr – Lines XL is a Numberlink Puzzle game that has you filling a grid by matching like-colored dots with lines. It has a massive 500 puzzles to solve, topping all earlier games in the series combined (unless you count Lines Infinite’s infinite number of procedurally-generated puzzles), as well as a nice, minimalist presentation. However, it is lacking options, even more than prior entries in the series. It’s okay, but largely unspectacular.

Grade: C

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