Tetragon Review

Game: Tetragon
Genre: Platformer, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, PS4, & Xbox One)
Developers | Publishers: Cafundo Estudio Criativo | BUKA Entertainment
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: UK £13.49 | US $14.99 | EU € 14,99
Release Date: August 12th, 2021

Review code used, with many thanks to Vicarious PR

There is nothing like a good puzzle game to spend a few hours with of an evening to relax. Is Tetragon, a 2D puzzle game by Cafundo Estudio Criativo and BUKA Entertainment, a game to spend a few hours with? Let’s find out.

Lost Son

In a parallel universe, the Planes of Reality are floating around the sacred jewel, the TetraGen. Now after many prosperous and peaceful years, the world and Tetragon is in danger! A mysterious dark energy has started to grow in Tetragon, a bizarre creature has been spawned from the dark and has destroyed the TetraGen jewel.

Back in the normal world, Lucios a woodsman and his son Jerry are working in the woods when Jerry disappears. Lucios naturally goes looking for his son and finds a portal. Stepping through the portal Lucios find himself in the parallel universe. In this parallel universe which is made up of, I guess you call them rooms, that are in themselves rotating puzzles.

2D Puzzles

Lucios finds himself in a strange world, he also discovers a lantern that has a piece of the TetraGen in it giving it mysterious powers. You have to help Lucios find his son and also find the pieces of the TetraGen. Using the lanterns powers Lucios can rotate each puzzle and move columns into position to make his way to the exit which is a green floating square.

The puzzles in Tetragon are set in various locations such as the forest and a castle, the artwork in the puzzle is gorgeous. You’ll be seeing plenty off it as you puzzle out how to get Lucios to the exit and onto the next puzzle.

Easy Puzzles to Start With

The first few puzzles are easy enough as it’s only a couple of columns to move into place so Lucios can reach the exit. Once he picks up the lantern things get slightly more difficult. You use the left stick to move Lucios left or right or by pushing up to make Lucios jump up. However, Lucios can’t jump up more than a few blocks in height. If Lucios falls too far it’s instant death and you start that particular puzzle again from the start.

As Tetragon progresses and Lucios receives the lantern to use this adds a new dimension to the puzzles. By using the lantern Lucios can make the whole puzzle area rotate which changes the direction of gravity and this turns the columns either vertically and horizontally. You use the ZL and ZR buttons to move the puzzle and the L and R shoulder buttons to move each individual column into place allowing Lucios to access the exit.

There is a Catch

Of course, there is a catch. Tetragon is a puzzle game after all. You can only use the ability to turn the room if Lucios is standing in front of a green stone situated somewhere in the puzzle. If you turn the room and there isn’t a column directly underneath Lucios he falls to his death as it’s not a soft landing.

There isn’t a time limit so you can take as long as you want to figure out the solution. There also aren’t any hints at all on how to solve a puzzle if you’re stuck. That happens to be my problem with the game at the moment. I’ve been stumped by the same level in the game for days. But one of these days when I turn the game on I know I’m going to solve it.

Move Columns Rotate Puzzle

Using the two mechanics together, by moving the columns and rotating the room allows Lucios to reach the exit and move on to the next puzzle, and closer to finding his son. The mechanics work well together and make for an interesting puzzle, with a little strategy involved.

Sometimes you can look at the puzzle, inspiration strikes and shortly after Lucios has exited that puzzle. Other times it takes a little while longer for the solution to come to mind. When you do solve the puzzle there is a good sense of satisfaction from completing it.

Three Worlds

There are 40+ levels spread out over 3 different worlds in Tetragon so there are plenty of puzzles. The game looks well and it is backed up with a lovely chill-out soundtrack. Unfortunately, I don’t think the soundtrack is matched with the urgency of the story of the game. After all, shouldn’t Lucios have some urgency about him to find his lost son?

While Tetragon’s puzzle mechanics are good, the controls to move the columns need some work. It is rather fiddly to move a column into position and click over to the next column you want to move. Especially when you are moving quite a few columns into place as you have to continuously cycle left or right and then back again.

At times the controls felt sticky or sluggish to me and would entirely miss the column I wanted to move. Another niggle is the blinding white screen that is shown when you move between puzzles, ouch, it hurts the eyes it is so blindly bright.

Conclusion

Tetragon puzzles are fun and entertaining, until you make a mistake that is. Without any way to rectify a mistake you have made in a puzzle, other than trying to retrace the moves you made backwards it can get frustrating. A rewind feature added to the puzzles would be a great feature to have. You could move back a few steps to remedy your mistake.

Tetragon is playable as it is, but it would be so much more playable and enjoyable with a hint or rewind feature.

Final Verdict: I Like It