Shift II
Remember way back like… four days ago… when I said Shift could use a little more, and how I was excited to see what they’d do with the sequel? Well, guess what. Here is MORE.
Now with three modes: Calm, Frantic, and Tactical, there’s a game mode for every mood. And there’s not just white and black blocks anymore… now they level up through six different levels, with six different point values, and there’s wildcard blocks, too. It’s kind of like if Shift and Generations had a baby? That’s the Calm mode. Take your time and think. Build combos. Play as long as you want/can.
Frantic mode has a very short time limit. You increase your time remaining by making matches and decrease it by wasting time not making matches. Meanwhile, Tactical is all about seeing how big of a combo you can build. Drop the combo and it’s game over.
You still have to make four-in-a-row, but your little robot avatar can now move all over the playfield instead of hanging out on the periphery. You still shift whole rows, but the field is always full now – no more blocks appearing randomly to fill in the blanks after you make matches. The different levels of blocks mean that it’s a LOT easier to be left with no obvious matches now, though. Luckily, you can burn an energy unit to level up or level down one block to keep your combo alive. It took a bit of getting used to the block colors/designs and their corresponding levels and point values, but there’s a handy cheat sheet in the Menu, accessible anytime.
This is a game that I think could be really impressive on the big screen if you could find a streamer/professional to play it for you. All the different levels of blocks mean that, while everything starts smoothly, things escalate quickly as you start filling the screen up with blocks that just don’t have a matching pair. Like in Generations, when you have that one grandma picture sitting right in the middle of the playfield for 15 minutes because nothing matches it yet. But someone that can really wrap their head around all the various block types and rules and when to level up and when to level down and where is best to use the wildcard blocks… they could make magic.
Not me, I’ve only been able to maintain a combo of like 20. But imagine!
(Released January 30, 2024, on Catalog and February 3, 2024, on Itch. Also on iPhone! Copy provided by developer.)