Ekstase Switch Game Review

Ekstase(ecstasy) is called itself a “love letter to Berlin and its techno scene.” I don’t know anything about that, I’ve never been to Berlin or experienced its techno scene. However, it is a fine puzzle game weighed down by the lack of any in-game tutorial. What’s the deal with Beat Mode? What’s the difference between style A and style B? None of these questions are answered in game. You have to read the e-shop description to make any sense of it. Fortunately, once you do answer those questions, you can enjoy yourself in this cross between Tetris and Lumines.

So, in Ekstase you drop colored Tetris blocks to make squares. A colored beam will remove all squares of its colors. In style A, you rotate the colored blocks in the shape. In Style B you rotate the shape itself. Focus mode is a mode where the game will adjust the difficulty based on how you are doing. The game will speed up and slow down accordingly. In beat mode, you have 99 shapes. You are supposed to drop on the beat. If you don’t, you lose shapes. Hit 0 and its game over. Classic is a standard mode with lots of options. Finally, Time Attack is self-explanatory, hit the score in the time allowed.

Ekstase has five songs you can play to, which adjust the visual theme, which is nice. They’re all thumping techno tunes, so if that isn’t your thing, look elsewhere. The visuals are simple but hypnotic, adding to the feel. The game was mostly made by one guy, and he did an overall good job here. The game works and you can get some longevity out of it chasing high scores on the worldwide leaderboard. Though, beat mode is by far the worst part of this, as its the most esoteric of the modes with little room for error. Overall, Ekstase will get a Recommended with a seven back-end score.

Overall: Ekstase is a fine musical puzzle game let down by some odd design decisions.

Verdict: Recommended

E-Shop Page

P.S. I feel like pimping Sphereout, another decent puzzle game. For a musical puzzle game also with no-name music, try Chime Sharp.