Review: Azkend 2 The World Beneath

Another one of this month's PS+ games, Azkend 2 is well worth a peek for the story that adds a little touch of style to a typical match 3 extravaganza. A trans-Atlantic sailing goes horribly wrong for one young lady, leaving her in a poor SyFy version of 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Fortunately, she's an expert raft builder, submariner, navigator and bug buster, so will have no trouble getting home.

Azkend 2's gameplay throws pretty much everything from the puzzle game design manual at the Vita's touchscreen. Get three, four, five or more tiles in a row for splashy effects, on some levels you need to turn the background tiles a certain colour, on others bugs are flitting up the screen, while on some the rewards need to be dragged down to the bottom.

There are also puzzle challenges where you have to eradicate all tiles, plus solo challenges outside the story mode, making this quite a fun package, with some image recognition games thrown in. While it will only take a few hours to whiz through the story mode, most trophies require you to develop a little skill, or get lucky, at the many game types, so you might come back for those and the individual challenges.

Otherwise this is another fair casual gaming effort to pad out your Vita's roster for those moments when you can't face another quest or MP session in one of the major games. It has some impressive hand-drawn artwork, jolly tunes from Jonathon Geer and all the trappings of a decent mobile effort.

Score: 6/10
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Price: £6.49 (PSN, currently free for PS+ in Jaunary)
Developer: 10 Tons
Progress: Finished story mode