Simple and relaxing puzzle games have always been a big seller on Nintendo consoles, which is certainly not a bad thing. KAMI (or “Paper,” if you want a translation) brings its own puzzling aspect to the 3DS’s eShop, and it has some Japan-styled aspects to it. However, is it too shallow of an experience to enjoy much or is intriguing enough to keep you coming back until you’ve solved every puzzle?

           KAMI’s concept is simple enough for anyone to grasp. You have to get every tile on the screen to the same color, but you can only do this by changing one area in which the same color is adjacent to itself to another color. Then, that new color will expand the area to any more adjacent tiles of the same color as the new color. If this sounds complicated, it isn’t. However, you must think ahead as the game progresses into the more difficult levels, something that we found really hard to do sometimes. As the game went on, we increasingly had to go with trial and error to figure out some puzzles. With 81 puzzles, though, it took us a while to get through all the puzzles, and some of them required quite a bit of thought to solve. This won’t be a game you breeze through.

           If just solving the puzzle isn’t enough, there’s a limit to how many times you can flip the paper. The main replayability comes from this aspect, as well; for every puzzle, there’s a maximum number of times you can flip the paper, but there’s also a minimum number of flips to solve each puzzle, and if you can flip the paper that many times and solve the puzzle, you’ll get a Perfect on that level. For as hard as the later level can get sometimes, this element can double their difficulty sometimes.


           There are a few things that make the game flow very well. At any point, you can quickly undo a flip or restart the level, or you can exit the level. You have access to all of the Classic Levels from the beginning (the other mode, Extra Level, is unlocked later), so if you get stuck you can move on whenever you like. The simplistic but interesting style of using paper as the tiles to flip along with the calming Japanese-styled music really sets a relaxing mood for the game. Overall, these tiny things really improve the experience of the game.

           There are a few small things that let us down a bit, however. There is no 3D in KAMI, though there is also no need for it, as we were looking at the bottom screen for almost the entirety of the game. Only one piece of music plays throughout the game, and while it’s not bad, more could have been done. Finally, the inputs can be a little slow in their animation sometimes; a minor annoyance, but one nonetheless.


           KAMI comes together to be a wonderful mixture of puzzle aspects and a relaxing atmosphere. It may not be one of the best puzzles game on the eShop, but it certainly will keep you engaged for a few hours, and one or two more on top of that if you go for perfection in all the levels. It’s got a few drawbacks, but it shapes up to be a nice game in the end.


Review Copy provided by: Circle Entertainment