[Review] Gematombe - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: Route 5 Games
Published By: Ratalaika Games
Categories: Puzzle
Release Date: 04.28.23

Clear or Crush! Clear your field or fill the opponent’s side until they are crushed. A Gematombe is called! Control Pandora and return these feisty spirits causing mayhem and stop Khaos from taking over!

It’s a bit like Arkanoid, but a bit like Magical Drop too. And like those, you’re probably going to be completely awful until you figure out techniques. Or how angles work. Not too bright I am, since it took me quite a bit to finally “get” it.

This isn’t a match color and drop game, this is just a break stuff game. But, the colors are something to watch for. Once you’ve bounced off of anything at least once, hitting a group of say…red, can clear that entire bundle of red blocks in one hit. The more you can clear at once, the faster you can both Clear or send junk over to Crush. This can make rounds go by shockingly fast. Sometimes, it might not be exactly wise to just clear as much out at once however. This is showcased especially in the game’s survival mode. Instead of being round to round like Arcade, it’ll just add a new opponent after you crush them. Meaning they have a full field to clear and you have very few, most likely scattered gems.

Arcade Mode itself, if you’re good can last all of ten minutes. But you can then do it as the other characters, all of which have their own special abilities when you hit chains.. There’s VS modes to play against you friends if you want as well as the previously mentioned Survival Mode. You can even unlock a few secrets including characters. So there is plenty to do if you enjoy your time. And after a bit of practice, I definitely did.

I absolutely adore how Gematombe looks. The characters are all cute, the game (as it should be) is very colorful, and simply just pops out. It’s a looker for sure and I am in love. If the point was to harken back to how characters in these kind of games looked like back in the day, they did a great job.

Outside of it’s style, I wasn’t really drawn into Gematombe at first. I was just struggling and struggling and was ready to handwave it. But the more I played, the more I wanted to play. Kinda wish this had online, but there’s always room for a sequel.