Broken Pipe Review

Game: Broken Pipe
Genre: Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: DillyFrame Games
Age Rating: US | EU 3+
Price: US $3.99 |  UK £3.59 | EU € 3,99
Release Date: March 24th, 2022

Review code used, with many thanks to DillyFrame Games.

Broken Pipe is a puzzle game released on Nintendo Switch by developers Dillyframe games.

Puzzle game

There is a little bit of a story in the game; you see, all the stream tanks that manage gates and bridges in this world are now broken. Local robots are bound to the broken modules and cannot escape from the place.

It is up to you to play the part of a little sliver robot and return the missing modules to the pipes to restore the stream. Then, when all the tanks work, all the robots will be able to leave the world.

Individual Puzzles

There isn’t a tutorial as such. Instead, what there is are instructions written in text on the ground in front of the first six puzzles. So while there isn’t a standard tutorial, there is enough information to get you started with the puzzles in the game.

The puzzles are set out individually. Each puzzle has modules that the robot must pick up and connect to the power lines. The modules have tiny coloured markings on the top of them. Some are marked with blue and red stripes; others have red and green.

Make the tanks work

First, you will have to connect the coloured pipes correctly by placing the modules on the connections corresponding to the stripes on the modules. Once you do that, the coloured stream can move from one tank to another to make them work, and you move on to the next puzzle.

Collectables to Find

Along the way, there are collectables to find in the shape of memory cards scattered around each area to collect. Once enough memory cards are collected, you can try out the simplistic mini-games. They remind me of the old browser games I used to play many years ago when the internet was in its infancy.

Mini-games

Mini-game Colour Jump will have you jumping on the platforms that match the colour of your character and avoid the grey platforms. Another mini-game is Drone Escape, where you play as a drone and must avoid the obstacles on the course. Finally, there is Bunny in the Forest, where you steer a bunny rabbit through a forest.

All the mini-games within Broken Pipe feel like fillers, an attempt by the developers to fill out their game with some different gameplay, but it doesn’t really work. Graphically the game looks fine, set in what looks kind of like a large space station. Unfortunately, it does suffer from frame rate shudders which are quite noticeable while you are playing the game.

Short Playtime

None of the puzzles offered me any challenge; I finished the game in a very short time as there are only 29 levels in a semi-open world. While I enjoyed controlling the little robot, there is nothing in the game or the storyline to make you want to care about the robots or the story.

The game is very simplistic in its puzzles and also in the game’s storyline. That isn’t a bad thing in itself, but a story and the main character you can get behind and care about in a game makes the gameplay far more interesting for the player. The whole game just felt very impersonal to me, in the end, I didn’t really care what happened to the robots.

Conclusion

Broken Pipe is fine if you don’t want a challenge from a puzzle game. However, as a player who likes to be challenged and enjoys discovering the solution to a puzzle Broken Pipe offered none of that for me.

The frame rate shudders are interfering with the gameplay as well, and the mini games fill up the game, but I’m afraid they don’t really fit well into the whole game. Although the eShop price for the game isn’t high, I honestly don’t think it is worth the $5/£3.59 price tag. This only leaves me to tell you that my score for Broken Pipe is…

Final Verdict: I Don’t Like It