Casual Review

Full Review

We make no secret of the fact that there are a few developers out there that we really like. Small innovative studios like Amaranth, Katgames, and Enkord have consistently put out games that either created or reinvented genres, and we’re always happy to help them pimp their stuff. Codemenion is definitely one of those studios: a small, scrappy team making handcrafted games that show a real love for the art form of making games. And Stone Loops, while certainly not a groundbreaking title in terms of innovation, is still such a game.

To be fair, Stone Loops is basically Luxor with different art and a few new twists. But to say that is to say Pepsi is just Coke with more sugar, or a Toyota is just a Honda with an extra couple thousand dollars in the price. The devil is in the details, and the details are what Codeminion has always been good at. And while the “hop on the marble popper bandwagon” may have passed about 9 months ago, they have made sure that a trip back to the genre is worthwhile.

The big twist is that instead of getting a random set of marbles to pop, you suck them from the line and spit them back in. This may sound minor, but because you are now picking every color that you are using, it creates a much more strategic feel to the game. Since they reward bonuses based on chains of matches, picking your marbles so that you have an unbroken chain of 10 or matches makes a real difference, and suddenly the game has a strong short term goal that is missing in a lot of these games. This makes it substantially more addictive, as you set your own mental scoreboard to try to make as many chained-matches in a row as you can, and prune the marbles accordingly. It’s subtle design genius, and it works very well.

The production values are superb, as you might expect. Graphically, it is beautiful, and the effects and specials are all well done and exciting. What really makes the game, though, is the sound. It’s the first non-Somatone game we have heard in a long while that really made us sit up and crank up the volume. From the didgeridoo whine of the opening credits to the crashing of the stones, the sound is in your face, and sets up a real tension in the game. Interestingly, this was done by their internal sound studio, so we are even more impressed.

There are other things – a strategy mode that’s good fun, and a survival mode that’s interesting, but you likely won’t spend a lot of time on it. The adventure mode is where the good fun is, and it has a house to build, a number of themed stages, and trophies to win – all pretty much required features for these games at this point, but done well none-the-less. In short, you know it’s been a while since you played a good marble popper, and you know you want another fix.

Review by Nick Kojima