Shape Suitable

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Shape Suitable is a family-friendly Puzzle game released on Nintendo Switch in 2021. In this game, players must draw shapes on the screen to accomplish various tasks, such as to assist characters to carry balls to an exit, or hold up a table without it falling.

With a premise like this, you would expect this game to make use of the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen, which this game does, and it works fine, but I actually found while playing this game that as inelegant as it is, I usually preferred the precision of standard gamepad controls, which this game also supports. Either way, I think players will find that this game controls fine, though not perfectly – I really wish you could zoom in to make more precise drawings.

The presentation here is decent, but extremely simple, using colorful but largely plain 2D shapes, with the games characters generally just being a geometric shape with legs and a smiley face. It works, but definitely seems catered to children. These visuals are joined by relaxed acoustic guitar music that works well for the lighthearted nature of the game.

For the gameplay itself, Shape Suitable has a decent selection of 126 puzzles for its $9 price tag, and there’s a pretty decent variety here. Solving these puzzles generally isn’t difficult, but doing so while getting all three stars for using a minimal amount of “ink” can be tricky… at least until you learn this game’s secret.

Want to know what it is? You can easily solve pretty much any puzzle with all three stars by drawing shapes using connected dots instead of lines. Use gamepad controls and just make dot after dot without moving the analog stick, overlapping them to connect each other. Dots barely use up any ink, so you should be able to draw any shape you want with tons of ink to spare.

Without that hint, Shape Suitable is a simple but decent game, albeit one that can be frustrating at times to get your shapes juuuust right. With that hint, you’ll breeze through every puzzle in the game without breaking a sweat. I can’t quite say which way makes for better gameplay, but ultimately both provide players with a simple Puzzle game that has its charms, but isn’t likely to be an especially memorable experience for you in the end.

tl;dr – Shape Suitable is a family-friendly Puzzle game that has players drawing shapes using either the gamepad or touchscreen to accomplish various tasks. Completing these tasks with minimal ink can be tricky, but there’s an easy cheat that can let you breeze through the game. Either way, this is a decent Puzzle game, but not an especially great one.

Grade: C+

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