Out of the 4 or 5 games I’ve sampled out of the Apple Arcade launch games, Grindstone so far is my favorite. The art, style, music, and gameplay are all stellar. Collecting blueprints is my crack. I’m grateful for Apple Arcade for it’s non-micro transaction environment and curation because I would have never tried this game out with out it. I’m only around level 20 and I heard the difficulty is borderline brutal later on but it doesn’t take away how much fun I’ve had in the past few hours.Room of improvements? Sure. I’m always a sucker for rpgs and character customization. It would be cool if our avatar leveled up and unlock, or we could buy, traits or abilities ... like reducing the hit requirements of boulders by 1 or having an additional small diamond drop on the board when a chain of 20 or more is achieved. Regardless, great game from a talented developer. I hope it gets expanded on. Capybara Games, if you ever need a 39 year old gaming enthusiast intern with a B.S. in Visual Communication, I’m willing to relocate. I love your work.

Ugh. I want to love these games, but I end up hating them. This one is another in a long list of adventure-puzzle-match-three games like Candy Crush or Best Fiends. Grindstone is dressed up as an Apple Arcade game, but it reeks of a more nefarious money grabber like the others. Here is a summary: 1) great concept with good presentation. 2) progressively harder - by world 2, it already becomes either beyond challenging or pure luck to beat levels (I’m a completionist and go for the crown in every level, which for all intents and purposes is impossible). 3) eventual frustration and deletion. Good for a couple hours. A slog after that. The Achilles heel of all of these games is the random drop engine. These can dictate whether you luck into a 12 move combo or get stuck with only 1 color in each direction. As you move on, the boards become more ridiculous blocked with boulders and crates that can’t be wrecked because there is no way to get combos long enough. Ultimately, this was designed to make money by getting players to buy lives and pay-to-win with charms and stones, but ended up in the Apple Arcade, which is exactly the kind of garbage I hoped to avoid with my subscription. Oh and a bit of constructive feedback: it would be nice if you didn’t have to go to the tavern after every round to refill your lives. It’s a lot of clicking and time wasting for no reason.

I love this game. The weirdness of it makes it the perfect game for me. But it’s also one of the most annoying games I’ve ever played at the same time. That’s why I’m here to blow off steam. It’s so aggravating to get put in a level where you need a minimum off 5 jerks of the same color in a row in order to bust a boulder or whatever and all you can get is 3 or 4. You smash the 3 or 4 hoping that some more of the same color will drop so you can get a long enough chain to open the board up so you can actually have a chance to do something. Instead you just go back and forth killing the 3 or 4 jerks you can and try to avoid getting hit by the increasingly angry jerks or another one spewing lava from its head. Inevitably you get killed before you even got a chance to try. It’s freaking maddening. My poor dog got upset because I was griping at then game and she thought I was griping at her. Do the developers try these levels out before they publish them or just cross their fingers and hope for the best. The only bright spot is that it’s an Apple Arcade game so it’s not costing any money just time off of my life. Arrrgghhh!!! Other than that it’s a great game. 😏

Let me preface this by saying I love this developer (Capy) and puzzle games in general. This is an excellent puzzle game with visual polish that requires a good balance of skill and luck. However because this is from Capy, I think the bar is set even higher than most, and I docked the game a star because of some design decisions that limit the amount of fun I’m having with the game. If the devs are reading, consider this as constructive criticism. My #1 problem is that the consumable weapons (3x uses before recharge) are simply not worth experimenting with because they are a huge resource drain. Rather I only use the abilities that auto recharge between levels. Because the cost of using the special weapons is so punishing, I’m just not enjoying those features, which seem cool. Why would you gate content like this? It would have been much more player friendly to either allow these weapons to auto recharge or make them purchasable permanent upgrades for your sword, shield, etc. What this feels like to me is a holdover from a freemium design that is no longer necessary in Apple Arcade. It would be so awesome if Capy changed this for the subscription version of the game, it would just be a lot more fun. Same goes for the armor types, which individually just aren’t that helpful. It would have been better to make these purchasable upgrades for the armor, instead of having to swap them between zones. I still generally use the very first armor, which has a % chance to protect you from a hit. So yes, you should definitely play this game if you like puzzles with something new to offer, and a fun challenge. Just don’t expect a perfect experience, as there is room to improve. I hope the devs consider some of these points, it would make a good game GREAT. Thanks!