Crossniq+

Genre: Unlimited Pattern Puzzle

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

Crossniq is an Unlimited Pattern Puzzle game originally released as a free webgame in 2018 (you can still try it out here), and brought to a full release on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019 as Crossniq+, with a lot of added content and game modes. This game has players sliding tiles on a multi-colored board, aiming to clear matches by creating a “cross”, a complete line and column of the same color.

The presentation here is excellent. It has a clean, modern look and catchy electronica music. I’m reminded to some extent of the game Lumines. To be clear, there’s nothing technically impressive going on here, but stylistically, this is a game that looks impeccably polished. One minor caveat – the game’s menu screens feature anthropomorphic animal characters with little bits of dialogue that just do not seem to fit the rest of the game’s presentation. Otherwise though, the presentation here is phenomenal.

As for the gameplay, the basics here are easy to get a grasp on in theory, but I have to admit that it’s very difficult to play this game in a way where the mechanics feel natural. It might be one thing if the goal were to make complete lines, but making a cross often seems to result in the player inadvertently messing up the vertical line while trying to set the horizontal, or vice versa, then having to go back and make corrections. It’s the sort of thing that really bogs down the pacing of the game, and keeps it from having that addictive quality you really look for in a great Puzzle game.

My other disappointment here is the complete lack of a multiplayer mode. The game has online leaderboards, but this game really seems like it would work very well with multiplayer – each player clearing crosses from their field, sending junk “lock” and “X” blocks to opponents… but unfortunately there’s nothing here like that.

I should note one other thing here. While you can play Crossniq+ with a gamepad, this is a game that absolutely plays better with a touchscreen. It’s just difficult to get the kind of speedy interaction the game calls for with an on-screen cursor when touching the part of the screen you want to move is instantaneous.

All things considered, I wanted to like Crossniq+ more than I did. The concept is simple and has a lot of potential, the presentation is stellar, and this game seems to have all the elements of a great Puzzle game. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself just isn’t as catchy as one hopes for from this sort of game, and the lack of multiplayer seems like a major oversight. Puzzle game fans may still want to give it a try (and you can always check out the free web-based version I link to above), but most will be better off looking at some of the other great games in the genre on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Crossniq+ is an Unlimited Pattern Puzzle game that has players moving blocks on a field to form a full cross of the same color. The concept is simple and the presentation is fantastic, but the gameplay just doesn’t have that “addictive” quality you really want in this sort of game, and the lack of a two-player mode is really disappointing. Fans of the genre may want to give this game a try, but most are better off going for something else.

Grade: C+

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