Game Reviews

Quetzalcoatl

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iOS
| Quetzalcoatl
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Quetzalcoatl
|
iOS
| Quetzalcoatl

And the award for most unwieldy iOS game name goes to... Quetzalcoatl!

Of course, if you're up on your Mesoamerican folklore, you'll know very well that Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent god.

Now that this has been established, you can forget all about it, because Quetzalcoatl is simply a very accomplished and delightfully fresh abstract puzzler.

On the slide

Vaguely reminiscent of sliding block puzzlers, Quetzalcoatl has you moving lines of coloured dots around a series of game grids, with the goal being to settle each of the coloured dots on a like-coloured square.

Space management and path finding are the keys to success here, as you grasp each 'serpent's' head and drag it around within the limited free space available.

As this is the sole means of movement, you'll often have to drag these serpents around an exaggerated, lengthened lap of the level in order to pull out a kink in its 'tail.'

This mechanic alone is enough to make Quetzalcoatl feel fresh among the usual crowd of match-three and spatial puzzlers. It also gives the simple act of puzzle solving an added tactile joy.

Sinks its teeth into you

I particularly appreciate the way that the developer hasn't added any bothersome stipulations for success. There's no bolted-on move counter here, no timer to distract from the simple ingenuity of its colour-coded puzzles.

It encourages you to experiment, to encounter solutions in the natural process of leading your snakes around the tight levels.

Admittedly, Quetzalcoatl will feel too sparse and too straight-forward for some. If you don't engage with its line-dragging gameplay pretty quickly, there's little here that will keep you plugging away.

But it's become pretty evident over the years that one of the toughest things to do in mobile gaming is to create a puzzler that's simple, fresh, and fun - and this here slithery snake manages to do just that.

Quetzalcoatl

A fine sliding-block puzzler with a core mechanic that manages to be both simple and original
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.