Return to Hawkins
Few franchises have taken the world by storm quite like Netflix’s Stranger Things. This 80s nostalgia train has one last station before inevitably spinning off into several more tales. Unfortunately, with filming set to begin sometime next year, fans will have to wait until at least 2024 to see how the series will conclude. In the meantime, if you’re craving more of the strangeness centering around Hawkins, Indiana, have I got a treat for you.
Netflix’s Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales from developer Next Games is a match-3 puzzle RPG game, that answers to “what if Stranger Things was a Saturday Morning cartoon?” The game begins in Hawkins’ arcade, The Palace. Lucas, Mike and you (the player) achieve a high score at a puzzle game. Suddenly, the Mind Flayer possesses all of the fellow arcade patrons, stuffed toys and Keith, the manager of The Palace. Simultaneously, a set of D&D dice teeming with energy materialize in Will’s hand. With this new power, you must defeat flayed foes and make your way home.
Roll the Dice
Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales gameplay is similar to most match-3 puzzle RPG games. Players must defeat waves of enemies by matching three or more of the same color dice. The more dice matched, the more powerful the attack. Matching dice and dealing combo attacks also activates characters’ abilities and their charged attacks. Enemy monsters are weakened by certain colored dice and buffed by dice of the same color. There are five dice colors—green, purple, orange, blue, and red. Early on, it was a bit of a challenge to remember the hierarchy of dice power, as the fast pace of the game makes it difficult to continuously check the dice alignments. Luckily, the game has a nifty chart on display in the upper left corner of the screen for reference.
Unlock new characters at the Base using walkie-talkies, star shards, or crystals. Currently, there are 40 different characters, divided into three tiers—good, awesome, and ultra. Good characters include mostly tertiary characters like Heather the lifeguard, Mrs. Wheeler, and Keith. Awesome characters are the main characters, and the ultra characters are special versions of the main characters along with more popular side characters like Eddie and Argyle. Leveling up characters requires resources like green goo, experience points, and coins. All of these resources are earned by completing levels and farmed passively by Will under the Rewards section of Story Mode. Characters can also gain buffs from equipment, which you can purchase at Bob’s store or receive from Will. After the first several chapters, the Gaming Table becomes available, This temporarily matches lower-level characters with your five highest-level characters, making them usable without having to spend time leveling them up.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Story mode is the game’s main mode and consists of 18 chapters with more slated to drop soon. Each chapter is represented by an 80s-themed movie poster and begins with an animated cutscene. Chapters consist of dozens of level nodes on a map themed with different Hawkins locations. Each level is comprised of two or three waves of enemy monsters. Every few levels, a brief dialogue-driven cutscene gives story updates. Story mode is fun, but can feel monotonous during longer play sessions, since gameplay equates to defeating wave after wave of monsters. Also, because of the game’s cartoonish take on the series, Puzzle Tales often feels Stranger Things adjacent, rather than a continuation of the series. I would’ve preferred a more canonical approach, but this Saturday Morning Cartoon feel is still really fun.
Puzzle Tales offers three more playable modes. After unlocking and joining a Club (think guilds), players will be able to battle a Club Boss. These tremendously powerful foes require club members to work together and reward members with resources. HNL (Hawkins National Lab) beckons players to test their skills by defeating waves of enemies. Levels consist of one wave of enemies, with increasing difficulty the further down the building you go. Rewards are also upped based on the increased difficulty, including star shards at five-level increments.
Portal mode tasks players with closing a portal by completing a campaign in three sections starting in Hawkins through to the Upside Down. This mode introduces slight changes in the gameplay which makes for more of a challenge. These include having the player maintain characters’ health throughout the campaign and harder enemies. However, random buffs are earned after completing encounters, and opportunities to restore health or revive characters are sprinkled along the way.
The Prize Inside
At first, I was a little disappointed by the game’s story. However, after spending time in the game’s universe, I grew to love it, especially given the Saturday Morning Cartoon intention of the game. I think a candy-coated version of Stranger Things makes sense from a meta perspective, considering how crucial 80s nostalgia is to the brand. The Mind Flayer possessing random objects as opposed to a mass of human flesh (à la season 3) seemed a little off yet is fitting for an 80s cartoon. The stakes can’t be too high or too scary. As a result, the stories are enjoyable and creative, but lack the power that having a more direct connection to cannon or scarier subject matter would give. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It’s balanced, addictive, and offers hours and hours of gameplay.
If you can allow yourself to enjoy the game for what it is—a puzzle-driven adventure set in the Stranger Things universe with the sugary aesthetic of an 80s cartoon—you’ll be rewarded with hours of fun. And you won’t even have to polish off a box of Captain Crunch to get it (unless you want to).
