Game: TENS!
Genre: Education, Puzzle, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, iOS & Android)
Developers | Publishers: Kwalee Ltd
Age Rating: EU 3 +| US E
Price: EU €14 ,99 | USD $14.99 | UK £13.49
Release Date: November 5th, 2020
Review code used, with many thanks to Kwalee Ltd
Do you love a good numbers puzzler? Good. You may be interested in the pretty dice game TENS!. Originally released on mobile and ported to the Nintendo Switch TENS! is an addictive and fun combination of Sudoku-style number puzzle.
Count To TEN!
TENS! takes its inspiration from Sudoku puzzles as I’ve said but there is also an element of Tetris in the gameplay. For each game of TENS! you’re presented with a 5 x 5 grid. You use the dice at the side of the screen by placing them in the grid so they add up to ten in one line. The choice of squares you can pick from come in a variety of different shapes. Ether single, double or L shaped triple shapes that can all be spun around and then placed on the grid.
If the sum of the 2 or 5 dice placed in each line of the grid, either horizontally or vertically, totals up to exactly 10, those dice are removed from the board and added to the your score. If the grid becomes so crowded that you can no longer make any moves then it’s game over and you can try again.
Obstacles To Avoid
Of course, it’s not just as simple as placing dice into the grid, as the game progresses there are obstacles thrown in your way. Obstacles can be anything from parts of the grid being faded out so you cant place dice on a square, or some squares on the grid have a randomness and will change the number on the dice when it’s placed. Or a fire, that burns anything placed on it. You’ll have to use a little more strategy to get around these obstacles.
Make Combos
Much like Tetris the more lines you clear at once gives you a combo and a higher score, as well as freeing up space. You’ll learn as you play to line up lines to achieve a higher score or combo. For example, in an intersecting horizontally and vertically line it is possible to have a total adding up to 6. If you wait until a numbered 4 die appears and place it in the square where the lines meet you’ll clear two lines at once.
Boss Battles
Most of the 70 levels in Adventure mode involves reaching a particular set amount of points, such as 40 or 70 points and so on before you can move on. The boss battles are when things get more intense and fun and enjoyable. During the boss battles, you no longer have to reach a high score, but every ten that you make creates a random blocker tile on your opponent’s board. Your objective is to create enough block tiles as fast as you can before your opponent does. Whoever runs out of space first loses the game.
In the boss battles, the speed picks up pretty quickly as you hurry to get rid of your opponents blocks while sending them right back to them. If this mode is more your style of play, there is a local multiplayer mode that is played the same way that two could try out.
Different Modes To Play
With an Adventure Mode to explore through and experience the world of TENS! on your own. You can also try out Endless Mode, the goal here is to beat your own high score. As you play through the levels you also unlock dice skins which add to a collection of skins. The skins give you different coloured die or dice with dots instead of numbers on them. While it’s not an overly important feature it is a nice addition to be able to change the skins of the dice.
Visuals and Controls
TENS! has an adequate tutorial which teaches you all you need to know upon starting the game. It’s all presented in a clean and colourful look, and thankfully without the adverts that plague mobile games.
Controlling TENS! is done via the joy-cons and it all works as it should. I was surprised that there isn’t any touchscreen controls as TENS! would be a perfect game to incorporate the touchscreen into the controls.
Conclusion
I’ve a confession to make, I don’t particularly like Sudoku puzzles nor Tetris, so you would think I wouldn’t like TENS!, but you would be wrong. As TENS! has a simple yet engrossing premise to its puzzles that pulls you in. And before you know it few hours have disappeared as you have spent your time counting to ten.
As long as the youngest player can count to TEN!, then this game offers fun and relaxing gameplay for all ages to enjoy!
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up