Legendary Slide 2 Review – More than Mahjong

There’s something deeply satisfying about a game of mahjong. The simplicity of it all, the beauty, the sense of elation you get when all the tiles are clear. Sliding and matching style puzzles, too, offer that same piece of the …

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There’s something deeply satisfying about a game of mahjong. The simplicity of it all, the beauty, the sense of elation you get when all the tiles are clear. Sliding and matching style puzzles, too, offer that same piece of the feel-good pie. Legendary Slide 2 combines the best elements from both genres into an irresistably attractive package. Not only can you match, slide, and stack tiles, you also get to puzzle through height restrictions and defeat obstacles no sane mahjong player could tackle in real life.

It’s pretty easy to get the basics down in Legendary Slide 2. You’re in a temple filled with stone tiles, you see, and you really want to make them disappear. To do that you’ll slide movable pieces by clicking and dragging down the path. When two identical tiles touch side to side, they vanish. Repeat until the entire screen is clear, then move on to a more difficult puzzle!

The slide-and-match concept seems pretty simple, and in practice, it really is. What Legendary Slide 2 does with it makes the game all the more incredible. We’ll start with one of the core aspects of the stages: height. Different layers of temple brick means you won’t always have an easy time sliding tiles next to their matches. Bridge building is key, but you have to be careful which blocks you drop down pits, as there usually isn’t a way to climb back up. Think before you click and plan your slides accordingly, otherwise you’ll have to start the puzzle over again.

Outside of the physical stage design, Legendary Slide 2 also packs in things like immovable blocks, directional arrows, freeze spaces, jump portals, and a lot more, each one causing you to stop and consider your movements before bumping tiles around. In case you do make a mistake, a quick undo button lets you back up as far as you like, even to the beginning of the stage. To get the full three stars for each level you’ll have to be precise with your movements without going over the movement counter, so make heavy use of that undo button!

On the “optional but awesome” list of features, Legendary Slide 2 gives you full control over the look and feel of the game. The temple setting is nice, but what if you’re more of a farm person? Use the skinning icon to switch backgrounds, tile decorations, music, and layer highlighting, all of which can make things easier to use or just more attractive.

Like its predecessor, Legendary Slide 2 is a sit back and think sort of game, not a fast-sliding crash ‘n bash tile flinger. The design is so simple and so perfect you’ll never get frustrated, however. Legendary Slide 2 knows exactly what to do with its core elements to keep things interesting. It looks great, it plays like a dream, and the included 80 puzzles will keep you scratching your head for hours. A great release for puzzle fans of all kinds, not just mahjong lovers.

The good

  • Core gameplay that's easy to learn but tough to master.
  • Nice use of obstacles to provide variety.
  • Superb presentation, right down to the sound effects and music.

The bad

  • Level progression is fairly linear.
95 out of 100
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