Numolition

Genre: Match-2 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Numolition is a Match-2 Puzzle game released on Nintendo Switch in 2023, putting players in the role of someone in charge of demolition at a construction site filled with boxes emblazoned with numbers 1-9 that they can destroy by matching 2 or more of them. However, the game puts a twist on this by allowing players to combine boxes by adding them up. Using this, players must clear boxes from the screen as best they can.

The presentation here is okay but not great, though it does have a few nice touches. Mostly, this is a strictly 2D game with cartoony artwork for its characters that’s not especially memorable or interesting. However, there’s a nice touch on the main menu, which takes on a faux 3D appearance with the angle controlled by your controller’s gyroscopic motion controls. It’s a nice touch, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the game. These visuals are backed by a boisterous but forgettable soundtrack, as well as the expected stock explosion noises you would expect given the game’s theming.

The gameplay here is split into different unlockable game modes, though their naming scheme is a bit odd. Levels mode is akin to a traditional Puzzle mode in a similar Puzzle game, where you have a set number of boxes to clear and must figure out the best way to clear them so you don’t leave any left. Do enough of these and you’ll unlock Towers mode, which is like a traditional endless mode, with this game adding an element that by combining boxes to reach ten now creates a bomb that can clear numberless wooden crates that now fall in addition to the standard numbered ones. Finally, Endless Mode is… apparently not an endless mode at all, but instead just a game mode that sends you to random levels from the Levels mode. Odd.

The Levels mode starts out simple enough, but quickly becomes extremely difficult, forcing you to really plan out how to move and eliminate boxes. Endless mode is… well, kinda’ pointless – if I wanted to play levels from Levels mode, I’d just play that game mode, after all. And personally I felt Towers mode had the most potential out of all of these, really letting you let loose after learning the basics in Levels mode. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work out that way, for multiple reasons.

The first problem is that your playing area in Towers mode is only a few boxes wide, which doesn’t give you much room to work with, and very few moves to choose from. What’s worse, the un-numbered boxes appear at a surprisingly frequent rate, meaning that you won’t be playing long before they junk up the game board and make it impossible to progress. A more gradual increase in their numbers would have worked much better, in my opinion.

However, in all game modes, there is another persistent problem that adds a lot of frustration – this game frequently acts as if you’ve tapped the A button repeatedly, causing you to clear blocks when you didn’t intend to. This results in you absolutely ruining levels and having to restart. Needless to say, this is extremely aggravating.

Numolition really had a lot of potential to add something new and interesting to the Puzzle genre with its core mechanic, but the restrictive and confusing game modes limit how enjoyable this core gameplay can be, and the control issues threaten to frustrate any players who stick around. With some tweaking, this could be a much better Puzzle game, but as-is, it’s just not very fun.

tl;dr – Numolition is a Match-2 Puzzle game where players destroy numbered boxes by matching 2 or more of them, or combine them to add up their numbers. The core gameplay concept here has some good potential, but the disappointingly restrictive gameplay modes and terrible controls keep it from ever reaching that potential. While this game is not without its merits, if you’re looking for a good Puzzle game, I recommend you look elsewhere.

Grade: C-

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