When it comes to competitive puzzle games, my wife and I have a pretty long history of battling it out. One sore spot over the years has continued to be who is better at playing OG Tetris, and I’ll admit that over the years that has been a hotly contested battle every time we’ve tackled it. But even going back to the SNES days I remember enjoying the likes of Tetris 2, and on the N64 we really dug the challenge of Tetrisphere (which really needs to be brought back) as well. Needless to say, if there’s a new head-to-head puzzler on the scene we’re going to have to give it a go.

I’m just going to get right to the point. SHIKA-Q is an intense combination of ideas, strategy, and plain blistering speed that definitely works to some degree. The best elevator pitch I can think of is that it’s Tetris meets Go, using tetrominos as your pieces and trying to rapidly claim as much territory as you can. Yes, there’s more to the general strategy than that, but having played a fair amount of it against the CPU, some people online, and my wife, I’d say speed is much more powerful than strategy on the whole.

It’s honestly where the strategic component comes in that I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it would be incorrect to say the game has no higher-end strategy. There absolutely is, whether that involves taking care in the pieces you pick, where you place them, actively trying to jam what your opponent may have in mind, and when to use your special move. All that said, I’m still not convinced that being strategic and taking the proper time to consider your moves is really a sufficient plan against someone who will be as strategic as they can, while simply filling up the board by being quick. 

It’s that sticking point that ends up making me less enthusiastic about the game than I could be, and that’s before questioning whether relying on its online play to remain viable in the longer term is a realistic plan. Sure, I could load it up locally to play against my wife, but more than most this feels like it would likely lead to lopsided results more often than not, since the advantage really goes to who can be the fastest, throwing off the balance of speed and smarts most games in this space are typically looking for.