Legendary Slide looks like it should be a mahjong game. It’s got tiles, there are some Chinese characters on some of them, they’re shaped like mahjong tiles, and it’s actually sisters with a game called Legendary Mahjong. This, however, is …
Legendary Slide looks like it should be a mahjong game. It’s got tiles, there are some Chinese characters on some of them, they’re shaped like mahjong tiles, and it’s actually sisters with a game called Legendary Mahjong. This, however, is a step to the side of mahjong — and even a step aside from a sliding puzzle. This is better.
The basic idea behind Legendary Slide is that you’re in a temple and you want to match all the tiles together to make them disappear. Instead of sitting in a pile or arranged on a grid, they’re shoved in corners, buried behind stones, or blocked by other obstacles. Tiles can slide in any free direction, allowing you to move them around the board so they can find their match. Just click and drag the mouse, that’s all there is to it.
Twists and turns in Legendary Slide come in the form of unique blocks that have special conditions. For example, some tiles might be frozen in ice, meaning they can’t be moved. You’ll also encounter sand obstacles that block entire rows. To clear them out, move blocking tiles from the side and let the wind crumble the sand into loose grains. How about lock and key tiles, too? As the game progresses you’ll get a taste of several different kinds of unique obstacles, such as bouncers and arrow blocks, all of which add the perfect amount of creative puzzle solving.
Dealing with height is another key feature of Legendary Slide. For the most part, pushing a tile over a gap means it falls down. You can’t slide it up a slope, meaning it’s essentially stuck. This forces you to plan ahead and think about things before you move. It also opens up the opportunity for tile bridge building and height-defying bonus tiles later in the game!
The thing about Legendary Slide is that it’s a sit and think puzzle. Staring at the screen when you start a stage, you get this wonderful sense of curiosity and confusion. You start making mental moves in your head, analyzing sticking points for tile mobility, looking at trouble spots to see how you’ll need to work around them, that sort of thing. After a few moments you’ll finally make your first move. Maybe it’s right, maybe it’s wrong, but you started, and that feels really good in this clever little puzzle game.
Legendary Slide doesn’t penalize you for making experimental moves or even time how long it takes to complete a stage. This completely cuts out most of the competitive features (except for stars, you can still earn three for each level) and lets you focus on solving puzzles, which is honestly why most of us showed up in the first place. To top it off, the game controls so smoothly it’s a pleasure to just sit and slide things. You don’t even have to wait for a tile to stop moving before sliding another one.
Legendary Slide is a top notch puzzle game. It’s not quite mahjong, it’s not quite a sliding block puzzle, but it’s so perfectly enjoyable that you won’t be able to stop.
