GENRE
	Puzzle
	DEVELOPER
	Hanayama / Bee Works
	PUBLISHER
	Yuke's
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	No
	MICROPHONE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

Tangram is an ancient visual puzzle consisting of variously shaped pieces arranged to form thousands of different recognizable images. The challenge is in replicating a given image by shape arrangement. The shapes are usually seven in number and must sometimes be flipped, so the name Neves is a clever, fitting new title for this classic puzzle game.

visuals

Menu screens and in-game visuals are focused in style and subdued in hue. With no extraneous frills to distract from the task at hand, players are left alone to contemplate the shapes and how they might fit together to solve the puzzle.

audio

Background music is mostly unobtrusive, generic lounge music. There's nothing especially notable about it, except that players can select what plays in the background or select to hear songs at random. Sound effects are more endearing, with each colored set of puzzle pieces having a unique sound set. For example, crystalline shapes tinkle when flipped and dropped into place.

gameplay

Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles: that's what makes games like Neves engaging, and happily that's what Neves delivers. In Silhouettes mode, hundreds of different puzzles of varying challenge levels can keep players engaged for hours on end. The deceptively simple rules draw players in, then hold their attention with one head-scratching puzzle after another.

Some solutions will be easy to see, others require a leap of insight to get beyond a mental block and solve. While the lack of a hint feature may be maddening at times, it makes solving the puzzle without help that much more rewarding in the long run.

Modes progress in a logical way from Tutorial to Silhouettes to Time Pressure and 7 Steps. All of the puzzles from Silhouettes are available in the latter two modes, which become increasingly more challenging. As the name implies, Time Pressure challenges players to complete puzzles within a time limit. Finally, 7 Steps is an expert mode in which players must solve the puzzle within a set number of moves. Sounds daunting? Silhouettes' basic, unlimited time mode is the perfect place to practice.

The shape set used in Neves differs from the standard tangram set by omission of the parallelogram and inclusion of trapezoids. The base concept, however, remains the same: arrange the shapes to form the image. Controls are nearly exclusively touch-based, only using Start to bring up the pause menu. While an option to use the buttons might have been nice, like Phantom Hourglass, Neves boldly sticks to its touch controls.

multiplayer

Bragging Rights is the game's multiplayer mode. In it, two players compete to see who can solve puzzles fastest. Because it's single card download play, Bragging Rights is highly accessible to any challenger with a DS.

overall

Neves is an approachable puzzle game that deserves induction into the Touch Generations series for its right-brain challenge and touch controls. The sheer number of puzzles combined with the increasing difficulty levels of different modes will keep players coming back time and again.

8.5/10