Blyss review - A clever, calming puzzler

Creating puzzles that both feel elegant and don't leave players stumped for too long is neither an art nor a science, but simply magic.

The fact that Blyss has managed to do this in a succession of simple, quick-fire puzzles that you can solve at your leisure is nothing short of incredible.

It's a game that takes minutes to learn, but makes even the worst puzzle hunters feel like a god when they nail the perfect solution.

The puzzles themselves are relatively simple. You have to connect blocks together by swiping over them, and create a chain of at least three or four blocks. You can't swipe diagonally.

Each block has a number of dots on them, which denotes how many chains you have to make with that block before it disappears.

So if a block has one dot, it'll disappear, but if it has two, you'll need to make two chains with it, and so on.

The trick, then, is working out which blocks to chain, in which patterns, and how to avoid cutting off other blocks and instantly failing the level.

There's often more than one way to solve a puzzle, and each time you do, it feels like you've pulled off an astonishing feat - even if it only took a few seconds.

There's an elegance to each solution that makes you feel incredibly clever with each solve, and that feeling manages to stick with you even though the puzzles are coming thick and fast.

You don't have to rush through them though, as the main Endless mode gives you a constant stream of puzzles to work through at your own pace.

Solve enough and you'll unlock Playground mode, where you can set your own difficulty, and Time Attack mode, where you'll be solving puzzles against the clock.

Blyss isn't without its frustrations. A stray swipe can completely screw you as you accidentally lose an all-important block, and instantly fail the whole puzzle.

And the retry system doesn't quite work. Redoing a move costs 15 coins, whereas continuing your streak on Endless costs one coin, then three, then seven, and so on.

It means you'll almost never re-do a move, even though coins are earned easily in-game, and instead you'll just quit out and start the whole thing again.

When it works though, Blyss is simply stunning. It's simple enough to draw you in during the early stages, but just complex enough to keep you coming back for more.

Yes, it has its minor frustrations, and a retry system that doesn't quite work, but if you're nailing everything first time (and you will) then it's a dream to play.