Styx Review

Okay, I need to get this out of the way right off the bat… When I was given this game to review I had some flashbacks to the days when I was a youngster, rocking out to the band Styx (yes, I’ve just admitted that I’m old). I got really excited to see what I might have here. Could this possibly be a game to rival the “Journey” video game of days gone by? No.

There was no reference to that once great band (though I swear that a bit of the soundtrack for the game sounded like it came from “Too Much Time On My Hands”, but maybe I was just imagining it). And, there was nothing about the River Styx. I was confused for a bit, so I decided to just open my mind back up and play the game and see what it really was…

And what I got is a nice game that over time has become an addictive puzzler that gets deeper and deeper the more you play with it.

The object of Styx is simple. You are presented with a screen full of colors (or objects if you desire) and you just have to draw a line with your finger to connect as many of the same colors as you can. When you’ve reached the end they’ll disappear and more will fall into place. The longer your string, the more points you get.

Helping you along the way are several different power ups. These can do things like change some of the colors, shift lines, add multipliers, and even blow up parts of the board. It took me a while to figure out how to use these items to my advantage, but once that happened I was really amazed at how this game took on a whole different feel. It went from, “this is a nice time waster” to “Hold On! I’ve got to play another game!”.

The look of the game is nice and colorful. That makes sense since you’re matching colors, but the game also tosses in some objects like flowers and fruits into to the mix. This helps with the game, and is nice for those who suffer from colorblindness. Nice graphics pop up at times to let you know that you’re doing great or just unlocked a new achievement (I’ll get to that in a moment).

The sound is okay, nothing too great (I was expecting Styx), but it works well for the game. And EMV Software AS also went to the trouble to let you pick music from your own library to listen to while you’re playing (Hello… Styx!). This is great since a game can take a while to play through.

As you play you’ve got a timer that is counting down. The game doesn’t end when it reaches the end, but rather it just changes a tile to one that won’t match up with anything. The game actually ends when there are no more moves so this “changing of tiles” will get you there quicker. This is a nice twist to this genre and it didn’t seem like a big deal at first, but became one very quickly.

As you progress to a new level another object is added to the list of what you already have on the screen. Having more types of objects means that there are less chances for strings and your game might be ending soon. You can lower down to a previous level if you wish, but there are more points to be gained by the newer objects… choices, choices.

Styx also has plenty of Achievements to unlock, which is something I love with these game apps. But don’t think that you’re going to get a bunch of easy to reach Achievements here, no sir. There are some really tough ones in this game and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get them. But this is part of what keeps bring me back to the game.

I will admit that Styx might get repetitive for some folks out there. The actual (basic) game doesn’t change much while playing. But for those that get past it and look at the strategy involved, it’s a lot of fun.

Maybe Styx wasn’t what I thought it was going to be when I first started it up, but what it became was much better. A surprisingly deep puzzle game with some nice tweaks to the genre that is very addicting. To EMV Software AS I can only say… Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto!

The Good

Addictive Play
Use Your Own Music (And Play The Real Styx)
Challenging Achievements To Unlock
Nice Global Scoreboard

The Bad

Might Get Repetitive For Some