Azkend 2 Reviews
Azkend 2: The World Beneath does everything it can to spice up the 'match 3' puzzle genre, boasting a narrative thread, power ups to collect and different objectives at every turn.
Azkend 2: The World Beneath is a fun, if sometimes frustrating game well worth its asking price.
Overall, while it may not have a never-ending amount of levels, like Candy Crush or Frozen: Free Fall, it still has a lot of content to offer.
Azkend 2: The World Beneath is a puzzle game with a varied assortment of levels and simple gameplay mechanics. It's fairly easy to get into and it ensures that most players can get into quickly but on the other hand, its lifespan is way too short and it's impossible not to feel frustrated at certain moments due to the random nature of the puzzle pieces distribution.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
This had ‘perfectly fine’ written all over from when I first booted it up, but then it muddied the waters with a forgettable plot and tried to drag me away from the eye-reddening, ‘I should probably stop playing this now’ core of the game. Should you get it? If you like match 3 games then it’s a decent one, but then, if you like match 3 games you can get lots of them for free on your phone – which is surely a better home for them anyway.
Azkend 2: The Wordl Beneath is a funny and light-hearted puzzle game, with more than 60 levels and some extra challenging modes, but it remains an extremely traditional product.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Azkend 2 is polished for what it is, so quality isn't really an issue here. But this game can't escape the crowd, as it does little to separate itself from the pack.
Actually, the match-three puzzles themselves aren’t bad, and each level offers a variety of puzzle styles to keep things feeling fresh
Azkend 2 has a threadbare story that basically gives context for going from one puzzle to the next, and it definitely won't be the reason anyone picks this game up. The events are narrated by the female protagonist whose voice was more akin to that of a children's TV presenter. The wonderful artwork fuses well with the game's musical score, both of which set a suitably mysterious and adventurous tone.
The story mode and equippable tiles give something unique, while the extra modes give the same type of replayability that makes these types of puzzle titles so popular.
If you can forgive the controls, Azkend 2: The World Beneath can be a fun puzzle game. The fidgety nature of the analog stick and the imprecise movements of the directional pad make it very easy to commit mistakes, something that didn't occur in either the PC or mobile iterations. If you can live with that, then you've got a puzzle game that provides a decent amount of challenge and replayability without feeling like it goes on far longer than it should.
Even with an occasional twist on the well-established formula for match-three games, Azkend 2 never really comes up with anything to distinguish itself. It feels like a budget iOS title, and maybe that's because that's what it originally was.
In pride of place on Azkend 2's feature list is the phrase "8 different backdrops!" and that really seems to be all you're playing the story mode for here - the chance to see a different barely animated backdrop before more puzzling is thrust upon you.
All together, Azkend 2 is a perfectly workable and enjoyable match-3 game. If you've played quite a few of these in the past then you're probably going to question whether you need even more of them, but then again, this is the first match-3 game of its kind on the Switch to date, so perhaps there's an audience for it. It's not going to be your game of the year, but you might just get a lot of play out of it.
Azkend 2 is a perfectly satisfactory match-three puzzle game that adds enough of a twist to be better than the average puzzle game. The hidden object portion isn't that great, but spending a few hours completing objectives and collecting items while matching like tiles is a totally fine time.
Azkend 2: The World Beneath may look and sound very impressive but its far too basic core gameplay, shortage of available modes, and mistake-prone controls make it a tough game to fully embrace.
The greatest strength the game has is the diversity of variations it throws at you, with new wrinkles and variations in almost every level...
Azkend 2: The World Beneath is another solid enough effort from 10tons that might not do anything we haven’t seen dozens of times before, but proves distracting enough when played in handheld. With so many other better examples of the genre on Switch already out there though, you’re probably better off investing your time and money in one of those instead.
Even with the frustrating aspects of this game, 10tons has done a great job bringing a traditionally mobile title to home consoles. And, with no micro-transactions to be found anywhere, you can feel safe knowing you have the whole game should you pony up the dough.
I wish that 10tons Ltd. would quit trying to add story modes into their puzzle games. Why? Because they understand gameplay. Their games are solid, functional, and are really fun. But, when you force story that isn’t great, it makes me want to quit playing and jump onto my phone for a puzzle game.