|| REVIEW || TENS! (Nintendo Switch)
Developed By : Kwalee Published By : Kwalee
Category : Adventure, Puzzle, Strategy
Release Date : November 5, 2020
About a month ago, I previewed an upcoming game on the Switch called TENS! It was slated to be the first console release from the mobile app company Kwalee, and just from the small description that was given to me on the game, I had a feeling I was going to love it. Combining the puzzle solving of sudoku with the visual and play style of Tetris, I was extremely anxious to get my hands on it just from the screenshots and trailer alone.
The main pull in TENS! is the game's adventure mode. Lady Desetine has presented an open challenge to all TENS players across the land. Only, to face off against her you'll have to deal with everyone that's set between you and her, along with various levels in between opponents that will introduce new tricks and hazards.
The way to play TENS! is very similar to Tetris. You'll get to use a five-by-five grid of spaces, and will be fed combinations of dice three at a time. These combinations could be a single die or multiple, and you'll need to figure out where and how to place them on the grid. Your goal is to make things add up to ten in either the rows going across or columns going up and down. Each time you do, you'll score points, and you'll need to continue to do so until you either meet the level's score requirements, or are unable to place any more dice on the grid.
Eventually, it won't be so simple as just place dice and adding to ten. Pretty soon you'll be dealing with spaces on the grids with different effects. One such space will randomly re-roll the die you place on it. Another will push the die in a continuous direction until it hits some sort of wall that prevents it from moving further. There's even a space that prevents you from putting anything in it at all.
As I mentioned before, the path to Lady Desetine is paved with...well, other contenders. Every so often you'll end up in a boss fight, competing head to head with an AI that is trying to make lines of ten faster than you. Each time either one of you completes a ten, it places a dead block on the others board. To clear these blocks you'll need to make a ten in the same row or column, otherwise the grid spaces will continue to fill until the loser can't place anymore dice.
If the campaign mode isn't enough for you, TENS! also offers you an endless mode and a multiplayer mode. Both are very much what they sound like. Endless mode just pits you on the five-by-five grid until you run out of space to make moves. I played this mode quite a bit and it never introduced any of the "power" spaces from the story mode, so either they don't come into play or it's really far down the line. Meanwhile, multiplayer just takes the style of the boss levels and pits you against another person to compete for tens.
Over the years, I've played a good amount of games that have drawn heavily on the Tetris style, and to be quite honest not many of them are quite memorable. However, with TENS! I got completely sucked in, and you should too. The bits of influence you can see are very quickly over powered as the game quickly and loudly draws off of it's own voice. What starts off as a fun, simple concept soon will have you pulling at your hairs as you drop dice and build yourself into corner just a few points away from the level's goal. If you're a puzzle lover, don't hesitate to add this game to your library.
Game Rating : 10/10
Pick up the game HERE on the Nintendo eShop
A code for this game was graciously provided
to the site for the purpose of a review.
