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Edges

Published by Sugar Games
Price $14.95
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Primary Genre Secondary Genre

Edges is a three-in-a-row puzzle game played on a game board. A grid scattered with a few red, green, blue and yellow tiles starts surrounded by ranks of tiles also in those colours. The only thing the player can do is slide a tile from the edge into the middle, with the aim of making a line.

The board at the start. I can slide that blue one out.

The game is turn based and each turn played makes some new tiles appear. At first I didn't understand what the little cross shapes on the board were, but these show where the new tiles are going to appear next turn. Those are disabled on the hardest difficulty level.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the newborn tiles because several tiles appear each turn no matter what, and forming a line isn't easy. Fortunately, there are no losers here. The highscore table started empty, which is a good thing because it gave me a sense of achievement when I beat my own score.

There's not many options left on this board.

The graphics are very simple functional 2D tiles. For a game like this the graphics don't need to be spectacular and here they aren't, but they get the job done. The menus are easy to read and glow when the mouse hovers, and there are sounds for clicks and slides so there is some polish here, but Edges doesn't stand out or impress visually.

The standard options for background music and sound effects are there, and the subtle music in the background is not invasive and pleasant enough.

Edges should appeal to puzzle fans, but like many indie games it is very shallow. There is not much for the player to do, only being able to slide tiles in from the edge. There are plenty of features that probably could have benefitted the game, perhaps including multiplayer, timed games, the ablity to control how many tiles appear each turn, recursive undo/redo, but none of those things are present. Being limited to moving tiles in from the edge is sometimes frustrating because a successful move might not be possible.

Edges is not a bad game, the presentation is good enough but the gameplay is at best average for a turn based puzzle game. The similar game Arcade Lines is more interesting to play, is loaded with features, and looks and sounds better at the same price. The best features of Edges are its simplicity and originality.

Graphics 70%
Sound 70%
Playability 75%
Longevity 39%
Overall Score 65%
Bronze Star

Published on 07 Jul 2006
Reviewed by Mark Sheeky

Keywords: edges review, sugar games reviews, sugar games games, edges scores, pc game reviews, indie game reviews, independent gaming.