by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Treasure Stack
• Developer: PIXELAKES LLC
• Publisher: PIXELAKES LLC
• PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox

What if a puzzle game removed the cursor and replaced it with a character? That’s Treasure Stack’s big gimmick, turning an otherwise regular competitive puzzle game into a platformer hybrid. The order which you stack blocks not only sets up chains to attack and defend, but creates a space you need to be able to physically traverse to engage with. It’s a solid concept, only rarely explored in other games like Super Puzzle Platformer or Mr. Blocko Super Tournament Edition.

For the most part, it works. Creating chains works similar to Puzzle Fighter, where adjacent treasure boxes are set off when placed next to a key block. Thankfully, the chain system is as involved as other puzzle games, ditching the elaborate cascading setups in favor of a more momentum focused system that rewards you with combos by completing a chain before the timer runs down. Matches are incredibly fast paced, so I can see anything more complicated getting in the way.

My biggest problem with Treasure Stack is how difficult it becomes to select the right piece as the match goes on. Each match begins relatively manageable, and and that slow pace it’s not too difficult to stay organized, but as the match drags on and the board becomes more complicated it becomes more difficult to select which exact piece you want. Some of this is inherent to the concept, but at times I felt that a little more jump height or control would have helped a lot, since it’s easy to find yourself needing just a little more height to select a piece at the top of a stack, and it becomes cumbersome to build your way to it. And god forbid you have to dig out a stack to create an opening below. That’s a logistics nightmare.

Treasure Stack has admirably complete online multiplayer, with a competitive seasons and ranked play, which were easy to find matches in. Casual play was less populated, however, and single player is limited to only a challenge mode that usually ends quickly thanks to its high pace, without even the option to play against CPU players. There is local multiplayer as well, but I didn’t have anyone to test it with.

Treasure Stack feels bare bones, and while it executes on the basics of its concepts well enough, there’s a lot of places that feel lacking compared to other competitive puzzle games. It’s worth playing for a couple weekends with friends and online, but it doesn’t have staying power.