Day and Night

Genre: Falling Block Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Day and Night is a Puzzle game that shares much in common with the likes of Puyo Puyo, but with a unique twist – only half the blocks on your screen are usable at any given time, and during the course of a match, the time of day shifts from day to night and back, and the corresponding blocks light up and become active.

This is a wonderful, original concept, and it is realized brilliantly here, with a wonderful presentation that does it justice, depicting the change from day to night and back as the changing of set dressings on a stage play. It’s accompanied by a very nice soundtrack of classical music, and some really good sound effects that give the entire game a distinct feel. The sound of clockwork ticking as pieces move into place, the sound of clock chimes as the time of day changes… all of it works very well here and sets the perfect mood for this game.

However, while the core gameplay of this game is very compelling, it doesn’t stop there… for better or worse. In addition to this, there are of course your standard combos and chains, but then you have different seasons that have their own season-specific blocks, and special blocks that do specific things in certain circumstances. On-screen at any given time you can have a dozen different block types with only a few of them actually usable. For me, this turned a great concept into an over-complicated mess.

I really wish there were options menu here that let you pare back some of the special blocks in the game to bring it back to something a bit more sane. Heck, I would have at least settled for handicap settings for multiplayer matches to accommodate uneven matchups. Sadly, the gameplay of this game comes as-is, and if you don’t care for it, that’s too bad – you’re stuck with the whole package.

I really wanted to like Day and Night a lot more than I do. It has some elements that could have easily added up to a truly magnificent puzzle game. Unfortunately, on top of these elements it added more… and more… and more… until the whole thing just feels like a bloated mess.

tl;dr – Day and Night is a Puzzle game that takes the classic Puyo Puyo formula and adds in a mechanic where only half the blocks are matchable, based on the in-game day/night cycle. It’s a cute concept, with a truly fantastic presentation, but unfortunately, the game doesn’t stop there, and adds a bunch of other mechanics as well that over-complicate things, and doesn’t give players any settings to customize their experience. The result is a game that feels like an over-complicated mess despite its initial brilliance.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Disappointing

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