Alpha Particle Review - High Adrenaline Puzzler

When you hear of a puzzle game, you generally have a preconception of how it’s going to play out. Be it Tetris, Puyo Puyo or one of the millions of match-3 games. Even the likes of Puzzle Quest or Kuru Kuru Kururin that try to change things up often fall back onto tried-and-tested formulas. Alpha Particle, however, does nothing of the sort. It’s a puzzle game, but one unlike anything you will have played before.

Publisher eastasiasoft lists Alpha Particle as a metroidvania. However, upon playing Alpha Particle, were it not for the fact that they’ve published one of the best metroidvanias in recent years, you’d wonder if anyone working there had ever played one. No, Alpha Particle is about being faced with a singular challenge and overcoming it within the confines and rulesets immediately available to you. Outside of hidden bonus levels, there’s no need to venture off in a different direction and return later with a new ability. There’s no souring previously completed areas to find clues as to your next direction. The game does have a map, NPCs (of sorts) and power-ups to collect, but these are largely part-and-parcel of your linear progression through clearly labelled individual levels.

So, what does Alpha Particle do that makes it so unique? Everything else. You play as a newly formed particle on a station in deep space. Your task as a strangely sentient but ill equipped life form is to become the titular alpha particle. In order to do so, you must outsmart and outmaneuver a variety of other particles across small hazardous maps, ensuring their demise as you grow in strength. It sounds simple – and on paper it certainly is – but in practice you’ll find Alpha Particle‘s seemingly simple gameplay can provide significant challenge.

Things start off relatively simple. You’re the white particle, the enemy is a red particle. If the red particle connects with you for a long enough period (a few seconds), you’ll die. There’s a turbine that will also kill you if you site within it for too long, but it will also kill the red particle. In case you hadn’t guessed it, your job is to lure the red particle into the turbine.

Red particles chase you without hesitation. Black particles are similar, but slightly smarter in their aggression. Then we get to green particles, which can’t be killed by turbines, but rather red particles. Hopefully now you’re getting the picture: don’t kill the red particles before you’ve killed the green ones! It’s a simple system that quickly grows into elaborate set pieces that you’ll only understand by playing through each level and seeing the repertoire of challenges grow. There are many games which can never present their true nature through a few hundred words and a couple of screenshots, and Alpha Particle is one such game.

But still, after all its uniqueness and high level challenge, is Alpha Particle actually an enjoyable game? It’s certainly a frustrating one at times, and humorous at others. Your enjoyment however, will depend greatly on how much of a challenge you want. If you’re the kind of gamer that enjoys playing Elden Ring for the sensation of success without any hand holding, then Alpha Particle offers something that may well be of interest. However, if your passion for puzzle gaming goes as far as Candy Crush, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.