The gameplay concept of Droplitz is simple – by rotating several sets of tiles representing different pathways, guide a series a water droplets down the screen towards ‘buckets’ that catch the droplets. Simple.

After playing Droplitz for only a few minutes, however, you’ll soon discover that this simplicity is disproportional to the depth (and addictiveness) of this new downloadable puzzle game on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network… even if it is a little rough on newcomers.

Ok, so maybe that synopsis is a little too reductionist, so let’s explain what you’ll be doing in Droplitz on a second to second basis, using the screenshot above to help out.

After working your way through the sleek menu system with soothing background music (and finding most of the playable content locked – more on this just now), you’ll be presented with the play screen, which comprises two droppers (from which droplets fall) at the top, a couple dozen tiles with differently shaped pipes forming the field of play, and three water receptacles (collectors) at the bottom of the screen.

It is your job to choose and rotate the tiles (left and right) in order to configure a series of pipe pathways to guide the falling (or, more accurately, leaking) droplets into the collectors at the bottom. If no clear pathway to the collectors is formed, the ever falling (and decreasing in number) droplets will be wasted on a carelessly branched path into nothingness.

Once a clear pathway is formed, however, special purple droplets appear and make their way to the bottom of the screen, scoring you points, increasing the number of available droplets to keep the game going, and removing the tiles that made up the path, which are replaced with new tiles for you to configure.

The challenge then comes in to not only form the paths quickly enough so as not to waste any droplets, but also create ‘chains’ of pathways – the more pathways there are leading to the three collectors at the bottom of the screen, the better, leading to higher points scores as a result of higher score multipliers.

Simple concept notwithstanding, Droplitz is a challenging game from the start, not to understand, but to excel at. The tutorial doesn’t make things any easier, either, while the locked content (i.e. the rest of the game, including extra levels and modes) will remain locked until you’re able to attain some impossible-looking scores – at least to begin with. After about your fifth round (puzzle game genii can adjust this number) you’ll start getting the hang of it, making that first impossible-looking score easily.

At this time, extra layers of depth and complexity begin to reveal themselves during a ‘simple’ game of Droplitz, and soon, scoring in a linear manner won’t be enough as the temptations of extra chains and score multipliers coax you into making some risky moves, while the expanded and more difficult levels will add even further depth, effortlessly exposed during any given round.

To further hone your Droplitz skills, you can access the extra gameplay modes (after unlocking them…), but don’t be surprised if you’re still kept busy and entertained with the initially unlocked offering, even after a few weeks of play.

The one repeating frustration with Droplitz is that during a round, you may be given ‘impossible’ configurations of pipes to use to construct a swift path for your droplets, forcing you to concentrate on one side of the level and wait until new tiles are added, hopefully allowing you to construct new paths and rid yourself of the offending configurations – a small flaw, but one that can become a nagging concern for players looking to take their Droplitz play to the next level.

Droplitz is easily one of the most addictive puzzlers to be released in recent memory, with great sound effects, dynamic background music and gratifying visuals to enforce and reward your in-game accomplishments. The simple concept and slowly revealed depth is definitely a contributing factor to this addictive quality, as you‘re constantly discovering new methods and challenging yourself to better your last score.

For puzzle fans (and curious onlookers), Droplitz comes highly recommended.

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