Wakedas (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cube? Hard, isn't it? Ever tried to solve just one side of it? Even that is a struggle. Wakedas is very much like that—trying to solve one side of a Rubik's Cube. The idea is to slide around rows and columns of squares across a grid, and line up the varying colours with each other so that the same colours are linked together. Just like that famous cube puzzle, it sounds so simple… but the solution isn't always the case.

The game naturally presents easy puzzles to begin with, with no tutorials; it is from going hands-on and moving a few squares around that the goal becomes clear. The more puzzles completed, the more that open up, and eventually, after clearing the majority of the 3x3 square grids, 4x4 and 5x5 stages unlock, making for a total of 300 unique puzzles to conquer.

Further ideas present themselves later on, making for trickier puzzles and more thought processing, such as triangles inside squares; locked-in squares, which stop entire rows from being moved around; and even shapes that rotate as they are slid across. Wakedas can be played at a leisurely pace; there are no time restrictions or penalties for making wrong moves. It is the sort of game that uses trial and error to eventually arrive at the solution. It seems that the answer often pieces itself together by mere accident on many occasions, though. Sure enough, by studying the grid carefully, the right moves can be worked out to eventually get to the solution, of which there are sometimes many in any given puzzle, but the more challenging the puzzles become, the more that blind movement comes into play. Just as solving a Rubik's Cube is very difficult for most people, the same can be said of a lot of Wakedas' puzzles; never impossible, but many require some perseverance.