Gem Smashers Review: Gem Smashing Puzzle Action

Gem Smashers Review

Gem Smashers is a puzzle game that has recently been released for the Nintendo 3DS. As you can imagine, you will be smashing into gems from world to world as you play through its story mode. While playing in story mode you will move from location to location to play in each stage. Each area consists of a certain amount of levels that you must complete. Once you complete those levels you can move on to the next area, and once you beat all the blocks in that location you will be able to face the boss of that location. Before you start though you will be able to select from 3 different characters for you to use with each having their own ratings for speed and power. The one with the most speed will of course allow you to go through the levels a lot faster providing for possible faster time bonuses for completing the level fast. The one with more power will blast through the blocks quicker than the others and the third is a solid mix of the two.

The levels are a lot of fun to play and easy to get use to, especially if you enjoy a good puzzle game. Your character will move up and down and you can control its speed to move them either faster or slower. Your goal is to destroy all the gems on the level and their will also be multi-color gems for you to destroy. So you will need to find the color changer and hit it so you can change your characters color in order to destroy that color of gem. You will also need to be on the lookout for the evil skulls and do your best to avoid them or they will kill you. I found it to be rather easy to run into the evil skulls blocks as it comes off as very sensitive. I had times where I thought I kept my distance enough but did not, so it was a good challenge.

The levels are designed pretty well and you will have your more easy to handle levels, but you will also have levels which become a lot more difficult. On these levels the gems spread out more difficultly so that you will have to avoid the evil skulls and avoid touching the color changers. You will have times where you are the correct color and you are trying to get to the other side by remaining that color, but accidently hit another color changer in which you will then have to go back and change your color back to the correct color. So the game is challenging in many aspects for sure. You will also have to destroy blocks in order to reveal the hidden gems and also to collect items which contain bonus points for you. There are a few items you will not want though as there is a position that seems to kill you if you collect it.

As I said, bonus points can also be achieved by completing the level as quickly as possible. Each level also has a time limit for you to beat the level by and if you don’t do so there will be another evil skull that you will have to avoid. It will bounce around on the level up and down like you do. Only a few times did I have some issues in beating a level where I had to deal with that, but it didn’t happen to often. As for the boss stages, those come off as a lot of fun as well. Some come off fairly easy, but they are still a nice change and fun to play. You’ll basically deal with a large boss in which you will change colors and you will need to change to the color to match it and hit it while you are that color. Once again you will have a time limit to deal with as well on the boss stage.

As you play in story mode it will keep track of your total overall score from all of the stages you have played in. It also keeps your best score for each individual stage as well so that you can go back and try for a better score if you didn’t do so well the first time. You should try to beat it quicker and get the bonuses the second time around to help get a higher score. Also, as you play through you will unlock extras which isn’t anything too special as it’s just your average artwork.

Another game mode that you can play in is called Color-cade, which is a lot more difficult. It features over 30 levels for you to play in a different style than story mode. Also, if you die enough times then it will be game over and you will need to start all over again from level one. So this is where the game has it’s biggest and most fun challenge for sure, as it is a good additional game mode to go along with story mode. As with story mode you will select your character of choice and your goal is the same. Destroy the colored gems and avoid the skulls at all cost. This mode provides you with a different point of view while playing and once again it is a lot of fun. It shows your current high score and the previous high score so that you know what you need to get in order to beat it. You will also, once again, deal with a time limit for you to beat each level as well and if you don’t you will lose a life. You can however earn additional lives while playing though.

Visually Gem Smashers is a lot of fun to play in 3D and has some decent effects. Each location is unique looking and adds to a nice background to play to. Overall I had a fun time playing Gem Smashers as it is another one of those fun and addicting puzzle games. If you are a fan of those type of games then you certainly should give Gem Smashers a good look. Once you’ve played through it all the high scores is what the game will then become all about. That will be a fun challenge in color-cade mode and possibly even for story mode for those who get into it. It does have good replayability.

Score: 3/5