A Clever Hex-Based Puzzler That Drove Me Nuts
My mind wasn’t made for Hexa Chippy. Give me a sokoban, sudoku, crossword or almost any other puzzle and I am fine. But, for reasons that I am still wrangling with, I can’t wrap my brain around Hexa Chippy’s harder puzzles. Even looking at a screenshot makes me a mix of infuriated and anxious. Anxuriated.
It’s not Hexa Chippy’s fault, and I certainly don’t hold it against the game. If anything, I doff my cap to it – it achieves a level of fiendishness that eludes me. There’s something I’m missing: the clues that get you started, the things that are always true. I can make the obvious routes round blank hexes, but when there’s free reign to do what you want? I melt into a gelatinous mass.
Caught In A Hex
I’ll rewind a bit. Hexa Chippy is the latest in a sequence of hex-based puzzle games developed by Afil Games. They tend to take the same approach: you’re given a hex grid and a selection of hex-paths. They’re jumbled up, so your job – should you choose to accept it – is to rotate and swap these pieces until a feasible path is created. That path must lead a starting point (in this case, Chippy, your squirrel) to an ending point (Chippy’s home). On the way, you need to pick up an acorn, and slot it into a hidey-hole.
That’s easy in the opening levels. There’s only one Chippy and one exit, one acorn and one hidey-hole. There are limited hexes to dick around with, and they’re mostly of the ‘straight’ and ‘bendy’ variety. So, you’re wending your way to the exit in the only way that’s feasible, tapping the shoulder buttons to rotate and A to swap pieces.
But the difficulty starts cranking up. The paths widen, so that more than one permutation of path could get you to the exit. Bridges get tossed in, and they rotate once Chippy has scampered over the top of them. You’re expected to use these bridges more than once, so knowing where they rotate to becomes essential.
I was still on board at this point. If there’s a crossroads piece present, then you know you’re going to need to loop back on yourself at some point. A bridge signals much the same thing, and often is a partner to a crossroads piece. Acorns and hidey-holes can’t be moved, and one needs to be reached before the other. I had some clues.
Then Things Got Nutty
But then the nuts hit the fan. I get the shivers remembering it. Suddenly, there’s more than one Chippy. More than one exit. More than one acorn and more than one hidey-hole. The hex map is broad, effectively saying “do what you want – but know there is only one solution”. Instead of a few dozen permutations, there’s millions. And don’t get me started on the levels that require you to think about the speed of each Chippy, ensuring that one gets to a bridge or acorn before another Chippy. Those levels can do one.
We can’t get mad because Hexa Chippy offers all the help in the world for stumbling players like myself. There is a Hint System here, and it’s so helpful that you almost start resenting it. Holding RB, it shows you a full red outline of the path that Chippy/Chippies should take. That’s lovely, but we’d wager that it’s too helpful. If you’ve got a half-decent memory, then a single press of the hint will show you everything you need to do to complete the level. And that’s more than I wanted, frankly.
So I stopped using it. Which is on me, if I’m being honest. I had this lovely tool on a felt cushion, the solution to all my problems, and I chose to avoid it (at least, until the achievements required that I use it). You, of course, do not. But know that it’s like getting stuck on one platform in a Mario level and someone lifts you up to the exit flag. Thanks, but I just needed a little leg-up.
Bury The Tools In The Backyard
There are other tools that swing like a pendulum to the other side of usefulness. A ‘shuffle’ button shuffles every last piece, even the ones you’ve placed. That makes sense, but also – inevitably – sets you back rather than pushes you forward. A ‘reset’ button doesn’t reset the board at all. In fact, it just sends Chippy back to the start of the level, which is only useful if you started him on his way. It’s borderline useless.
I’m a little sniffy about the controls, too. A selected hex is not highlighted in a particularly visible way. I would highlight a piece and suddenly realise that I already had a piece selected. They would swap, and I’d groan and go back to fetch it. A better outlining or glow on a selected piece would have done wonders here.
So, the supporting tools aren’t all that hot. C-, must try harder. I felt like I was muddling through the puzzles with awkward mittens over my hands, when I could have done with a little more help than that.
The puzzles themselves, though: they’re fine. Good even. Each level uses the bridges, crossroads and multiple Chippies to great effect. Some have you figure-eighting around yourself, while others are a question of which Chippy goes where. They require you to master different aspects of Hexa Chippy and, to us, that’s a sign of quality level design.
The Enemy Was Inside Of Us All Along
I’m conflicted. I was in pain in the latter levels of Hexa Chippy, but that pain was self-inflicted. Hexa Chippy gave me all the tools to solve its path-finding puzzles, I just chose not to use them. I also needed to squirrel-up and get good at solving this kind of hex puzzle. But as much as the fault is my own, there’s still the matter of an over-eager hint system and mostly useless reset and shuffle features.
I’d probably measure my enjoyment of Hexa Chippy at 3 out of 5. Particularly in the latter levels, I feel it gives the player too much rope: too many potential solutions, too few clues. But I have the overwhelming feeling that I’m the problem. Hardcore puzzlers who like to be tested? I think they’d go for a 3.5.
Important Links
Twist, Swap, and Align Tiles in Hexa Chippy – https://www.thexboxhub.com/twist-swap-and-align-tiles-in-hexa-chippy/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/hexa-chippy-xbox-series/9NLX1KQBGKDT/0010
