Wakedas is a simple yet deceptively challenging puzzle game for the Nintendo 3DS. While very basic to control and easy to understand the game is packed with 300 levels to keep you busy.
There are three different board sizes with one hundred levels each. The first series are played on a 3×3 grid with the next hundred 4×4 and then 5×5. You’ll need to beat nearly all hundred boards in the first series before you can play the next series.
The goal of each board is to shift the tiles around so that the colours are sorted together. You will want to end up with all of the blue tiles touching and the yellow tiles touching. If there is a tile separated from the rest of the colours then you’ll need to continue until you can make them all meet up.
Tiles can slide left to right or up and down. When you slide tiles to the right the right-most tile will shift to the left side of the row. The same goes for the reverse and when sliding tiles up or down.
The game starts simply enough with just two colours to get the player familiar with the game. After the first fifteen levels the game starts to feel a bit too easy. Even with a third colour added the levels don’t offer that much challenge.
This is the point where the game switches it up and ramps up the challenge.
Gone are nine full tiles of solid colours. The game then adds split tiles of two colours, quarter tiles with four colours and a two-colour tile with one colour on one side and another on the other three. These levels jump up the difficulty and really gets you thinking.
Another thing that adds to the challenge? Some levels have tiles that are locked and can’t be moved. Others spin and turn as you move them. Wrapping your head around how to move the tiles to get them where you need them is quite satisfying.
Wakedas has a simple and clean look with the game board is on the lower touch screen. The top screen isn’t really used in the game and displays moving clouds. As you complete levels little ‘rewards’ appear on the top screen briefly, such as balloons or animal shaped clouds. They don’t really add anything to the experience but is something nice to see more than a blank screen.
The music in the game is fairly simple and mildly repetitive during the game. The track is relaxing enough but loops too soon. Too short of a loop can be tiresome when playing for an extended period of time. At the very least the three different board sizes have different background music.
The game is just as enjoyable without sound to the music really didn’t prove to hurt anything.
Your puzzle solving skills are also rated at the end of each level. Depending on how many moves you used to solve the puzzle, you are awarded up to three stars. There isn’t a great use for the stars but it is nice to know that the puzzle can be completed faster. Seeing a three star rating lets you know that there is no quicker time.
Seeing two stars lets you know that you can do better and the level can be beat in less moves. A one star rating just reminds you that you sucked.
Of course if you do make a wrong move in the game you can go back a step and unlimited number of times without having to restart.
Overall Wakedas is a solid puzzle game that is simple to pick up and complex enough to hold your attention. And with 300 separate puzzles to solve the game will have you sliding tiles around for hours on end.
