Developer: Anvate Games
Steam Release: Dec 2016
Hours Played: 3.3
Similar To: Atlantic Quest 2 / Bejeweled Twist / Secrets of Magic / Spooky Bonus
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips
By now, developers of match-3 games know they need to give their game a twist to stand out from the rest. The well-known Jewel Quest and hugely popular Fishdom series were two of the forerunners that started the ball rolling; Puzzle Quest started a whole sub-genre of RPG match-3s then the Candy Crush craze came along and gave the whole thing a kick. A whole brigade of developers then came to flood the Big Fish Game catalogue (and partly the Steam one as well) with an ever-increasing pile of similar titles many of which are really very good. Button Tales brings its own USP to the table. Sure, you still have to collect X amount of tile-types or uncover areas by matching tiles in less than X amount of moves... and sealed tiles still have to be broken. Some levels even require you to "capture" jumping pins.
The "twist" in Button Tales is precisely that - you "flip" tiles over (or in this case buttons) to reveal a different button design underneath. If it matches - happy days but if you don't you can always just go right on ahead and flip it back. The beauty of this is that it doesn't count towards "moves" so you can flip to you heart's content and with total impunity. However rather than simply spamming the flip mechanic, in the hope of fluking lucky hits at zero cost to the move-counter (which you can do in the early levels), later levels will somehow punish you for doing this making it a less viable strategy. The game therefore becomes a very well-balanced strategical match-3 where you'll have to put those thinking caps on to steer towards the best course of action.
Button Tales joins that group of titles where cartoon-like graphics aimed at very young children forms the facades to a game set to an adult-difficulty. However this child-friendly approach, mainly centred around a happy chappy in blue dungarees, is only really apparent in the opening cut-scene, the home-page, splash-screens and the load screens. The star of the game itself are the simply-designed buttons. These feature colourful and basic patterns that are bright and distinctive enough to set them nicely apart from each other. Sound-effects are also simple yet appealing and satisfying but the music, again aimed at the youngsters, was far too squeaky and cheesy for my old ears.
Like that masterpiece of match 3 goodness Spooky Bonus, Button Tales maps out your progress in the form of a path with dots. A dot will light up in green when completed and you can only move onto the next one when this has been achieved. You are awarded up to three stars based on competence which I think is based on number of moves. Unfortunately, unlike T-Kara Puzzles which states how many stars are awarded per moves left, Button Tales neglects to give away any such information. You collect gold while playing which you then use pay to repair the surrounding theme park but like Fishdom, where you purchase fish and whatnot for a tank, this is purely cosmetic and included just to give a little substance to the progression. There are around 108 levels altogether.
CONCLUSIONButton Tales is a case where developers have clearly looked at the genre and decided that it could do with being shaken up a little. I am pleased to say that they have certainly succeeded in this regard. Sure, games such as Atlantic Quest 2, Secrets of Magic and Tales of the Orient offered by Steam as well as Cave Quest, Jewel Match 2 and Runefall (over at Big Fish) all do splendid things with the formula but Button Tales definitely deserves its spot here for such a simple yet unique twist. Throw in the decent power-ups on offer and an achievement section that's actually built into the game rather than tagged on to the Steam overlay and an attention to detail can also be added to the fine things Anvate Games have done with this game. At the price of a local bus trip as well, it's worth picking up.
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