Nature Matters Review - LadiesGamers

Review code used, with many thanks to Ultimate Games

Human neglect of the natural environment…. Social awareness for the threats that are the result of this is so very important. Those first lines were perhaps not what you had expected from this review for puzzle game Nature Matters, is it? It is however very much a part of the game Studio Digital Melody made. The Studio even goes so far as to say that if at least one person becomes more attentive to nature by experiencing this game, they are happy to have reached that. Let’s see if the game has what it takes to reach this goal!

Follow the Little Plant Spirit

In Nature Matters, you take on a role of a little Plant Spirit. Without any protection and surrounded by a city that grows up from everywhere, she realises one day that she is completely alone and won’t be able to survive.

Nature Matters LadiesGamers.com — The little boy caring for the shrub

She remembers a little boy that took care of her, a boy that watered her daily, but one day he just didn’t show up. The Plant Spirit can only think of one solution: to find her caretaker, so she sets off on a journey. She meets animals that help her on the puzzle levels that she visits. But when she catches up with the boy he is now grown up and caught up in the material world, it seems he is not interested anymore in nature. He won’t help her and turns her away. She doesn’t give up though: time for a new mission.

This background story adds a nice touch to a visually beautiful game. It makes sense, the way that everywhere the Plant Sprite goes on the land that has been left dry and barren, nature explodes. It’s up to you to puzzle yourself through the levels presented and beautify it all again.

Fill the Land with Nature by Logic

Nature Matters serves up a story mode with 90 levels of puzzling goodness of the logic kind. They start off fairly easy, very relaxing. Your sprite has to cover every tile before there are no more moves to be made. And going back more than once on a tile is no option, so there’s only one way to finish the level.

In later levels, more obstacles are added. Keys that make some elevated parts of the plots of land sink. Coloured dots that whisk you from one end of the set of tiles to the other end. And special tiles that allow you to use them twice, the downside is that you have to cover them too, which takes two moves.

The challenge definitely gets harder, or maybe it’s because I’m not a puzzle buff myself. It’s a nice touch then that after several tries, you do get the option to move on to the next puzzle.

Aside from the story mode, there’s an endless mode as well, serving up puzzle after puzzle in a random way. This makes for more fun and a longer playtime.

Visuals, Music and Overshooting the Mark

As a gamer, I’m always partial to the visuals in a game, which is why I picked this one up to review. It looks adorable. The Sprite looks different and very fitting for every season, the way natures covers the tiles looks good.

What makes Nature Matter even nicer visually is the way the Sprite leaves a splotch of nature in its wake. First, it’s Spring when the Sprite starts on her journey, moving on to Autumn, Winter and finally Summer. I’m not sure why the seasons aren’t chronological though.

The soundtrack is nice background music, not too intrusive, just relaxing, fitting the gameplay.

There are however two things I’d like to comment on, and that is that moving the Sprite to a tile and making her stop in time can be quite difficult. I’ve had her overshoot the mark very often, and then I’d have to start the level over. Aside from that, I could have done with more variance. Some 25 levels in each season where the tiles are basically the same even though the layout is different could use some sprucing up.

Conclusion – Attentive to Nature?

Nature Matters is a great looking logic puzzle game, with relaxing background music. The perfect game to go with a nice cup of coffee in between your daily workload. Quick to jump in, do a few levels and jump back out again.

A little more variance in the levels would have been appreciated, but overall, if you like your logic puzzles: be sure to check this one out. It’s currently on sale till June 16 in various country, so you could find lots of puzzle fun for a small price.

After playing, you can judge for yourself if you are more attuned to nature!

Final Verdict: I Like It