Tiny Biomes is a simple tile rotation puzzle game where you need to guide the flow of water to set end points. Unfortunately, the gameplay always feels like work and is never fun.

Even with the three different biomes, aka backgrounds, the objective, approach, and presentation remain the same – hit the A button on each tile until one end is connected to the other. As a quick comparison, think Pipe Dream but without the entertaining level of stress.

The first few stages are very easy and can be completed in a matter of seconds, but the difficulty grows over time. Eventually, the water will need to be guided to multiple end points, amplifying the difficulty. However, since there is no time limit, no penalties, and no variations, each stage is the same as the last. Keep in mind, you can only rotate pieces; there is no option to place pieces from a selection, for example. This means it might be easier to work backwards. Meaning, start from the exit point and work your way to the beginning. Each single-screened puzzle is never challenging but also never fun.

The presentation is also very basic, but it works. The free-use plug-and-play soundtrack, however, does not make the game any better. There is also no option to lower the volume level of the music, only to deactivate it completely (which is the preferred option). 

In addition to the chore-ish gameplay, my biggest complaint actually comes from the unnecessary screen shake effect. With each piece rotation, the screen does this little shake animation and caused me some pretty bad nausea halfway through. I needed to shut off the game and come back the next day to finish it, feeling queasy again by the end. It is such a small thing that turns into a big headache over time and should not have been implemented in the first place (or at least have an option to deactivate it in the menu). 

There is an attempt to incorporate replay value by introducing the 3-star rating scale, in which the player is rewarded with more stars by completing each stage with the least number of moves, but it doesn’t mean anything. There is no payoff for getting all 3-star ratings, for example. The only benefit from mustering through the work-like gameplay is the 1,000 points worth of Gamerscore in the hour it takes to clear all 150 stages. Even then, there simply just isn’t much here.

SCORE: 3/10

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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