Review: Murphid (Xbox Live Indie)
I asked the 11 year-old son of my friend to try out Murphid by Decapod Studios in between his games of Borderlands and Iron Man 2. “Do you like Tetris?” I asked. His response was a quick “No”. Still, he agreed to try it and within minutes he changed his tune to “Hey, this is pretty fun!”
Murphid is indeed pretty fun but it’s more like Dr. Mario meets Puzzle League than Tetris (but that would have been a tougher sell to an 11 year-old boy more interested in blowing things up in his gaming time). The playing field begins partially filled with marbles of random colors which begin rising to the ceiling. From the ceiling fall paired marbles which you cannot rotate, only swap with next pair waiting to the side. At first it’s a little confusing not being able to rotate the pieces as you are used to, but you quickly learn why and appreciate the strategy you have to develop.
Murphid, it's you. Murphid, it's you. Murphid...
The object, as you might have expected, is to use the piece in play to match at least one of the colors in a set of three or more. Each successive combo you make increases your score multiplier and gets you closer to a special item like a chainsaw which drills down through marbles, a vertical or horizontal line-clearing bomb, a paint drop that colors a wide area a specific color, or several other useful types. The higher your multiplier, the higher your score obviously. You’ll often find yourself looking longer than you wanted for even a small combo to keep the chain alive.
Another unique visual in the game is something that appears to be a “staple” attaching pairs of marbles. In fact, every pair that drops from the ceiling is stapled. This is a quick indication for you to know how marbles are attached to their neighbors and how they’ll behave as they fall or broken apart by clearing one of the pair. It’s very easy to see and account for in your moves, and I appreciate it greatly.
There are three modes of the game, all available at the outset. Campaign mode is the standard game across at least 72 levels. In this mode, the playing field rises and your piece is attached to the ceiling until you drop it. Filling the required score meter on the left advances to the next level. You can earn extra lives by clearing special marbles from the playing field. If the marbles reach the ceiling, you lose a life and the top 50-60% of the playing field is removed and the game continues.
Arcade mode is probably my favorite. In this mode your pieces don’t remain attached to the ceiling, but rather they fall and you have to act more quickly to find their place. Each piece you drop fills a meter on the left a little and when it’s full after about eight pieces, a new row is added to the bottom. This continues so you have to make sure you’re clearing marbles a decent clip to keep the playing field manageable. Unlike Campaign mode, you only get one life here so keep the marbles away from the ceiling!
Finally, Survival mode is played more like Campaign mode with your marbles stuck to the ceiling and the playing field rising. However, there are no levels and no lives, just you against time. Each time a new row is fully introduced at the bottom, the “Rows Survived” counter on the left goes up by one.
There are eight in-game awards. Six of which are awarded over time simply by playing and the other two are awarded for surviving 30 and 60 minutes respectively in Survival mode.
As with all Xbox Live Indie Games, there are no Xbox Live achievements, online play, or online leaderboards. I do wish Microsoft would start allowing XBLIG developers to have access to these because games like Murphid would really benefit from leaderboards and an online (or even local) competitive mode. Other XBLIG games send out High Score messages to people on my friends list, so maybe that’s something that Decapod can add down the road. It’s a simple way to get around the leaderboard problem and simultaneously bring attention to the game.
Murphid is a great casual game that really delivers on the fun. There’s a lot here for fans of falling-block puzzle games and newcomers alike. It’s simple, challenging, and rewarding and anyone can pick it up and jump right in. At only 240 Microsoft Points ($3), it’s a very easy recommendation.
Hi Brent, thank you for the review. Positive feedback helps tremendously.
As for the leaderboards / competitive mode / messages – thanks for the recommendation; we’ll keep it in mind for the next update or the next version of Murphid.
No need for thanks, Mr. Pod. May I call you Deca?
You should be proud of Murphid. It’s a great game on many levels and the fact that it’s your first has me looking forward to what’s next.