In 2012, gamers were treated to a surprisingly addicting twist on the popular match-3 with RPG elements hybrid: 10000000, the freshman offering from Luca Redwood’s EightyEight Games, added the fast-paced high score chase of endless runners to the mix, resulting in a familiar yet new experience perfectly suited to mobile play. While this was followed up with another unique fusion—the sneaky multiplayer take on rock-paper-scissors, Smarter Than You—we were always waiting for more 10000000. That three-year dream has now been more than fulfilled with the release of You Must Build A Boat.
You Must Build A Boat is the direct follow-up to 10000000 and is a shining example of a sequel: it improves upon its predecessor in almost all regards, building up from everything we fell in love with the first time around. The tweaks and improvements made to 10000000’s formula have resulted in a similar, but far superior experience in YMBAB, well worth the wait.
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At first glance, these sibling puzzlers could be twins. YMBAB follows in its brother’s footsteps in form and function, putting players in the shoes of the unnamed adventurer from 10000000. Now freed from his rebuilt castle-dungeon, he’s taken to the seas with two undead companions from his former escapade, intending to travel…somewhere (while not made entirely clear, we assume it’s just “away from that monster-filled castle”). In order to actually get anywhere meaningful, however, they need to transform their tiny dinghy into a full-fledged boat.
This transformation requires entering nearby dungeons to collect gold and treasures, defeat and capture monsters, and attract other adventurers to your crew by completing impressive feats in the form of quests. These dungeon trips are the primary gameplay of YMBAB and will look familiar to fans of 10000000: they’re presented as a match-3 puzzle board on a 6×8 grid (which is actually one column fewer than in 10000000).
At the top of the screen, our adventurer runs in an endless corridor populated by monsters and treasure chests which block his progress. Defeating a monster (by matching sword or staff tiles on the puzzle board) or opening a treasure chest (by matching key tiles) will remove it from the corridor, award some gold, and allow our character to continue moving forward. Every time our adventurer is held up by an obstacle or hurt by damage, he loses time and some of his distance on the screen. If he falls too far behind, the continuously-scrolling left side of the screen will catch up to him and end the run.
There are four other matchable tiles on the board in addition to swords, staffs, and keys: shield tiles fill your shield to reduce time delay from enemy attacks, crate tiles potentially award usable items, muscle tiles award power, and brain tiles award thought. These latter three look new, but they’ve really just replaced similarly purposed tiles from 10000000: treasure chests, wood, and stone. While these last two were used to upgrade your dilapidated castle, power and thought are more like a currency in YMBAB, allowing upgrades and purchases from the various crew members that join you over time.
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