Thank you Romans I XVI Gaming for the review code.

Simplicity can be a real breath of fresh air, whether you're playing bad or good games. Sometimes you just want to move a block along a line and Tiles definitely brings that home. While it is not a game with much longevity it is still a quality experience. Let's get back to basics with Tiles.

Tiles is a simple puzzle game in which you must move a square from where you start to a red square. As you move on the pathway towards the end of the course, the square you are on will disappear after a few moments. There are certain squares that may have to be crossed over twice or squares that disappear and reappear at random. Aside from single player levels, you have a collection of user made levels to choose from.

The game was clear and easy to understand yet the puzzles increased in difficulty at a very fair pace. As the puzzles got harder, I never felt that they were being unfair to me. Yet the game was definitely no easy walk in the park. I had to retry particular stages multiple times before I managed to succeed. Mixing twitch skill with puzzle games is no easy task but Tiles did it rather well.  

The tools they gave level creators are easy to understand and follow. I made a few test levels that I decided not to upload. The levels felt as if they were part of the original game whenever I played a player created level. In the total package you'll have about 90 base levels with the game and around 100 or so user created levels.

The game is a fun time waster when you have a few moments of free time yet this game does not have a lot of longevity. The weakness of mixing a puzzle game with twitch skill is that some puzzles can be solved just by moving fast enough. While this wasn't the case with all of the main game levels, I managed to beat some challenges by being quick in my movements. I can't tell if this was intentional on every level I did this. Most of the stages I found uploaded by other users seemed to be based on speed over logic.

I can't see myself playing this game for long periods. It reminded me of the Brain Age games that Nintendo did on the DS. They were fun to pick up when you had idle time, but not what you would jump to for a hardcore gaming session. I see Tiles working more for the mobile game crowd over Steam. Part of the reason I might feel this way is a lack of response when you move your square or solve a puzzle.

With no backgrounds, notable music, or sound effects, you rely on that sense of accomplishment alone from your users. The only music you get is the same one tune on loop over and over. While that may work some of the time, I won't be talking about that really hard puzzle I solved at the Noodle Bar.

You won't have to worry about morality issues with this game unless you have a few issues with moving squares. It can be a nice game for kids just getting into gaming who need something simple to start with. You'll have plenty of challenges as an adult to.

Despite being rather forgettable, Tiles is a cheap and fun time waster yet it won't be much more than that for most people. Give it a try when you want to stretch your brain.