Voodoo Dice is a relatively simple puzzle game. You control a die and the aim of the game is a straightforward case of getting your die from one end of the stage to the other. However; various puzzles, obstacles and enemies are preventing that from being an easy journey. The main premise of the game is to make your way to your goal by clearing other dice blocking the path by landing adjacent to them, matching their number and thus making them disappear.
While the general idea is a strong one, its execution is weak. Most levels use a nasty trial and error mode of play. Rather than giving you a decent puzzle to have a good think about, more often than not the stages result in you being trapped in a corner or an area you shouldn’t be, resulting in a slightly bitter restart of the whole stage. Pick ups, such as ones that invert your controls, seem to be an attempt to spice up the puzzle element but often result in more frustration, rather than working the brain a little more.
Some stages are brilliant little puzzles that bring a great sense of satisfaction once beaten, but for every one of those there is twice as many poorly laid out stages that will result in various restarts before you actually work out what is needed. And what sounds like a generous 60 stages, is mostly repetition of similar, if not the same puzzles that you have gone through already.
The games multiplayer mode holds some variation via the four modes available, each with 5 maps to play with. Race is just what you’d expect, 3 laps round a course with varying obstacles. Flag is an odd version of capture the flag, only you ARE the flag and an opponent simply touching you will pass it on. The two more interesting modes are Tactics, a turn based game where you must eliminate each other and Arcade, which focuses on a competitive slant on the games main idea; destroying dice by landing next to it, matching its number and scoring you points and bonuses for doing so. Whilst all of these modes are for up to four players, this is only in local play. The game has no online modes, which is a shame as if this were the case, it would open the game up massively.
Voodoo Dice has some genuinely great, simple ideas, but it tries to over complicate things and act too clever. More of the simple dice-busting action would be great, but it unfortunately feels the need to throw in unnecessarily harsh extras to puzzle you even more, when really it’s just going to drive you insane. And with a 800 MSP price tag, it’s just not worth it.
Pros
* Good ideas
Cons
* Far too much trial and error
* Price tag is too high for such a small game
* Soon becomes repetitive
Originally written by me, for http://www.nxtgamer.com/
As always, comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated! 2.0