Ten By Eight is Japanese ESPN that’ll put you in jail

It’s a puzzle game

Puzzle games can be so great. Even those guys who are all like “Gunz an multiplayur orr GTFO” can’t deny the simple joys of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo or Planet Puzzle League. That said, no one knows why puzzle games can be so great or so bad. 

This mystery kept young Tim Rogers (of Action Button Entertainment) up at night. “Why the heck are good puzzle games so enthralling, and why are bad puzzle games so dang boring?” he’d ask himself, staring into the darkness, “Most of them are just moving colored squares around a rectangular playfield, yet some are genius and others are garbage. How can I conquer the puzzle of the puzzle game design puzzle?!?”

Luckily for us, Tim’s late night pondering paid off. Those haunting questions lead him and his team of upstart game developers (at Action Button Entertainment) to create Ten By Eight (available now on PS Vita and other PS Mobile compatible devices). Their goal was to design a game that felt endlessly and effortless fun forever. ZiGGURAT is proof that they have some skill in achieving that pursuit, but can lightening strike twice?

If you’ve played Ten by Eight, come back and tell us if it’s so great or so bad.