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DS

North America

Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral

by Andy Goergen - April 25, 2010, 9:17 pm EDT
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6.5

Visit the bottom of the ocean in this puzzle game from Storm City Entertainment.

Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral is an educational title with a fun puzzle mechanic at its core. It is a match-three puzzle game, like many that have come before it, and the game's unique twist is that instead of falling objects, as in most Tetris-style puzzlers, Bermuda deals in floating objects. On the top screen is a boat that fires gems into the ocean, which resides on the bottom screen. As you fire gems into the ocean, they float to the surface. If the surface is too crowded, they will float below the gems above them in a pyramid fashion. When three gems match in a row, they vanish, and spread nutrients to the ocean floor where coral grows. When enough coral has grown, the stage ends.

Adding to the gameplay are four items that can be acquired through matching specific gems, or purchasing from the store using money earned by playing the game. These items include a Wave that eliminates the top row of gems; a Bomb that destroys gems within a specific radius; an Anchor, which is used to attack enemies that come to destroy the coral you've grown; and a Rainbow block that eliminates all gems of a specific color. All of these items prove to be useful at different times, but it's a shame that 75 percent of the items accomplish the same task of removing gems.

Bermuda Triangle comes with three modes: Story, Time, and Endless. The Story mode is a set of pre-made stages, all of which play exactly the same, but progress in difficulty as more gems get added from the seafloor during the stage. The story itself is very brief; it seems as if it comes from one half of one page of a pamphlet handed out to you by an environmentalist group. The story contains three characters, "Hero," "Captain," and "Sara," none of whom are introduced, and the relationship between which is never established. The three cut scenes that tell the story gives each character two or three lines about how important coral is to the environment. Sara boldly states that she will never wear any jewelry made from coral. All told, the story mode contains 32 stages and takes just more than two hours to complete. The first half of the story is incredibly easy, however the difficulty level begins to ramp up toward the last quarter of the story. It's never so difficult that it's frustrating, but it does provide a nice challenge.

The Time and Endless mode are exactly as they seem: score attack modes that let you play either a specific time limit (although more time can be earned as a bonus while you play), or as long as you can survive. Unfortunately, there are no multiplayer modes in Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral.

The game is very bright and colorful with nicely drawn graphics and a responsive interface. The game can be played either with the D-pad and buttons, or with the stylus, and works equally well with either. The sound design is pretty lackluster, with only a few different cheerful tunes that play in the background, and a bit of voice acting (with a very strong accent) that announces things like "Double Combo!" and "Wow!". It's a nice touch, but nothing that really stands out as anything particularly impressive. The story mode takes you through all of the various backgrounds in the game, which only differ insomuch as the shade of blue in the sea, and the time of day the game takes place in. The lack of variety is disappointing.

With a game like Bermuda Triangle, the bottom line is whether or not you enjoy the base puzzle gameplay. While it is far from the best match-three game on the market, this game definitely is enjoyable, and holds up for the few hours it takes to play through the story. Those looking for a deeper puzzle experience will want to look elsewhere, but for something a little more light-hearted and casual, saving the coral might just be up your alley. And who knows, you might learn something along the way, too.

Score

Graphics Sound Control Gameplay Lastability Final
7.5 4.5 7 5 3 6.5
Graphics
7.5

These aren't award-winning graphics, but the colors are bright, and the sprites are well drawn. For a budget title, there are far uglier games out there.

Sound
4.5

A limited number of background songs and laughably hard-to-understand narration dissuade players from keeping the volume up.

Control
7

Both the stylus controls and the button controls work just fine here, though the button controls are a bit more comfortable. The interface doesn't lag; it's very responsive and feels well designed.

Gameplay
5

The game provides an interesting twist on the typical match-three puzzler, but the unpredictability with how gems will be pushed lower as more are dropped from above can be frustrating. The items are fun to use, but some of them are too similar to others.

Lastability
3

The story mode will last you half an evening, if that. There's no multiplayer at all, and the score modes will only last so long.

Final
6.5

Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral is a fun, if brief, diversion. If you're in the market for a budget puzzler on DS, this might be the right choice for you.

Summary

Pros
  • Bright, colorful graphics
  • Fun, if shallow, puzzle gameplay
  • Not too difficult
Cons
  • Gameplay is fairly simplistic
  • Lack of variety in gameplay modes
  • No multiplayer
Review Page 2: Conclusion

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Genre Puzzle
Developer Storm City Games
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral
Release Q1 2010
PublisherStorm City Games
RatingEveryone
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