Mixolumia is a puzzle game created by davemakes in 2020 for the PC. A very unique premise for a puzzle game that brings in dynamic musical elements you would see a la Lumines or Tetris Effect for more popular examples. It manages to bring a lot of customization into the experience down to the color scheme and soundpacks that adjust how each element of the game sounds when you perform a specific action. After playing for several hours trying to wrack my brain around the mechanics and felt actually there's a lot of things at play here and the game just always felt confusing considering it's pretty minimalistic at least in looks.
The overall presentation here is definitely the highlight of this experience. There's 5 main modes here including a classic marathon mode, an endless mode where you continue until you fill the board, a rush mode where you only play for 2 minutes, an intense mode where you are required to clear 450 at the max drop speed and a relaxed mode where the speed doesn't increase and there is no failure state. I can really appreciate the effort the developer has put into making this game as customizable and accessible as possible for a lot of people that gives everyone a unique experience going into this game. The game flow consists of stacking square (or diamond) shaped blocks on a gem shaped board hoping to match at least 3-4 in a specific shape in also hopes of chaining clears for a better score (sort of like Puyo Puyo) with the help of the in-game physics. The game itself plays well and seeing a big clear (even by accident) always gets the dopamine receptors going but there are some problems I have with the game flow that I'll touch in the next section.
My main two complaints about how the game flows during gameplay are the physics and the different kinds of blocks that makes it hard to differentiate at times especially to a new player or in the heat of the moment when playing. I found it hard to create combos with how the game after several hours of playing which is sort of why I play these games. Sadly after several hours, I only managed to get combos out of nowhere and learning how the physics work with the board and after a while, it stopped being that exciting for me since I know I didn't really do this.
I think this game still has a lot of potential and it was pretty fun for the several hours I got out of it. Nonetheless it's still pretty impressive visually and a solid puzzle game all things considered, sorta wish there was more to do and wish there was a better way to tell where exactly where blocks would go or give us the tools considering the game is completely open to being accessible as possible. There isn't much to it but it's still a puzzle game and you enjoy a more auditory and visual experience out of your puzzle games like Lumines or Tetris Effect then you can't really go wrong here.
The overall presentation here is definitely the highlight of this experience. There's 5 main modes here including a classic marathon mode, an endless mode where you continue until you fill the board, a rush mode where you only play for 2 minutes, an intense mode where you are required to clear 450 at the max drop speed and a relaxed mode where the speed doesn't increase and there is no failure state. I can really appreciate the effort the developer has put into making this game as customizable and accessible as possible for a lot of people that gives everyone a unique experience going into this game. The game flow consists of stacking square (or diamond) shaped blocks on a gem shaped board hoping to match at least 3-4 in a specific shape in also hopes of chaining clears for a better score (sort of like Puyo Puyo) with the help of the in-game physics. The game itself plays well and seeing a big clear (even by accident) always gets the dopamine receptors going but there are some problems I have with the game flow that I'll touch in the next section.
My main two complaints about how the game flows during gameplay are the physics and the different kinds of blocks that makes it hard to differentiate at times especially to a new player or in the heat of the moment when playing. I found it hard to create combos with how the game after several hours of playing which is sort of why I play these games. Sadly after several hours, I only managed to get combos out of nowhere and learning how the physics work with the board and after a while, it stopped being that exciting for me since I know I didn't really do this.
I think this game still has a lot of potential and it was pretty fun for the several hours I got out of it. Nonetheless it's still pretty impressive visually and a solid puzzle game all things considered, sorta wish there was more to do and wish there was a better way to tell where exactly where blocks would go or give us the tools considering the game is completely open to being accessible as possible. There isn't much to it but it's still a puzzle game and you enjoy a more auditory and visual experience out of your puzzle games like Lumines or Tetris Effect then you can't really go wrong here.