HACK*MATCH is absurdly, brutally difficult

[lovinlovasz]

It feels like it was written by, and for, someone who has spent the last decade living in the mountains away from society doing nothing but playing Puyo Puyo. There's no learning curve, just a learning cliff. It feels like you need to be able to instantly see and construct massive chains to have even the ghost of a chance, but it's incredibly hard to learn that skill because you die instantly the moment you make a suboptimal move. I play a lot of reflex-based and precision platformers so my underlying skills are decent, but for me it's already too difficult to be fun - it took me about an hour to luck my way past the second level and then I ragequit on seeing the first row freeze. I'm assuming it will be drastically worse for anyone who mostly plays turn-based and puzzle games (probably quite a few Zachtronics players).

I genuinely think think the game would be better if it were primarily turn-based, with the real-time mode locked behind completion and not gating any story behind it.

(That said, Hobby Studio, Dungeons and Diagrams, ChipWizard Professional and Sawayama solitaire are all pure gold so far. Hobby Studio in particular is an amazing idea that could easily support a full-length game in the vein of PC Building Simulator - I've been wishing for something like it from Games Workshop for a long time.)

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Hi, I'm the guy who has spent a decade in a mountain studying Puyo Puyo - and every other arcade/versus puzzle for that matter, name it and I've probably played it. Hack*Match is a damn good one, I was in love with the Exapunks version and was super excited for a remaster with versus mode now (netplay when tho?). Yes, these games are a steep learning curve, but once you open your third eye and get into a flow it feels so good.

[Ruldra]

Can someone explain how to break those non-colored blocks with a symbol inside? Even if I match them with the appropriate symbol they won't break.

[NFG]

@Ruldra - the manual shows that you need two of them, you can't disappear them one at a time.

[JonathanBergeron]

Level 4 is ridiculous (I'm was stuck), you try to save some blocks to ccreat combo to damage and then you have to juggle 20+ white blocks. If the block could disapear like in puyo/kirby avalanche, it could balance, but no they turn into regular blocks.

Also the emulator should/could have 'save state' so you can start back at the level you were at.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

I'll repost some tips I wrote in another thread:

Originally posted by Mega Missingno.:

Chains, chains, and more chains. Try to visualize what's going to fall when you clear a group, and work out what to line up so that you'll make a chain. You can keep making moves while a chain is resolving, allowing you to extend more links if you're quick enough.

Use the swap button, It's a very potent tool to dig through and fish out the pieces you need. You can reach a piece three deep with grab, swap, drop, swap, grab. Likewise you can deposit a piece three deep with drop, swap, grab, swap. I recommend taking some time to just practice manipulating pieces this way, get a feel for it until it's instinct to quickly get pieces where they need to be.

The powerups are considerably less useful here in than in Exapunks, because you should be killing before a second copy ever spawns. They don't deal any damage either, even if they set off chains. They're still good for cleaning up the board, and with one less color you might be able to set of a chain next and make that one count, so do go ahead and use it if you find an early pair. But don't rely on it, pairs usually don't show up until it's too late.
Edit: I am mistaken, chains off of powerups do count. So they're still powerful if you can get them, it's just a big if.

When you get to Exa Nina, watch her attack gauge in the corner closely, and try to make sure your board is as empty as possible when her attack lands. She turns whatever's onscreen into garbage, so if you have more than three rows you're probably instadead, but less than that and you can work through it. You're very unlikely to fully clean the board in time for her second attack, so you really need to kill her before she charges up another.

Alternatively, try to just kill her before she even does the first attack. It can be done!

[1.2M | Missingno.]

Few more notes to add:

Chains in this game don't actually have to be chains, you can just make more clears while other clears are going and they will count, Money Puzzle Exchanger/Magical Drop style. You can also add pieces to a group that's clearing and they'll clear with it, giving you the bonus for a large group. You do have to be pretty fast and I'm not particularly good at this style of active chaining (I suck at MPE and MD), so I mostly just set mine up Puyo-style and that works. But keep this in mind because it's quite powerful if you can use it.

Scoring actually seems to favor playing slow and not dealing too much damage. I haven't worked out the formula for score or garbage, but I feel like I score a lot less when I win in 1-2 big chains then when I chip them down. I did notice that bare clears of 4 deal no damage, but do score points, so if you're comfortable stalling you can keep the boss alive indefinitely and try to rack up points this way. Not fond of this and I hope they might consider adjusting the scoring system, just adding a time bonus for quick kills would be best I think.

[Tapasvi]

The easiest of them all. When you make one chain, you can quicly move one block to finish the second one for the big damage.

[Sui Generic]

Someone wrote code for the Exapunks version which played the game for you. Given that this is Zachtronics, I always figured that that is how you were meant to beat it. Now I'm not so sure. I've spent about 2 minutes with this version and I'm pretty happy to just put it aside forever.

[1.2M | Missingno.]

You definitely don't need to do that. It only took me a few continues to beat it the first time, and after that I went back and 1CC'd it on the very next try. Way easier than the Exapunks version, frankly, that one did take me a while.

Hard mode when?

[Crinkles]

Difficulty ramps up way too quickly... need a way to uninstall hack*match or swap it for a better ROM

[buddy]

it only took me around half an hour to beat it. I did play a sh*t ton of the Exapunks version though

[1.2M | Missingno.]

More tips? More tips.

The swap button can reach through blocks that are clearing. This is going to be tricky to get your head around but I'm certain it's an incredibly potent tool for active chaining.

Garbage reverts back into whatever piece it was before being converted. If you can keep track, you can set up chains through garbage.

It's possible to save a single piece from Exa Nina's attack if you drop it with the right timing. She will garbage a piece you are grabbing or holding, but not while you are dropping it. Hard to time it right and just one single piece is probably not going to be that useful, but it's an interesting quirk I discovered.

[Rush]

Yeah, this is the one minigame I will probably never beat. I do enjoy this type of game but this is way too frustrating.

[BtB]

I had to slow the first three levels to one quarter speed and the last one to one eighth speed to beat it. I'm not saying everything needs to be accessible, particularly in a Zachtronics game, but I've had this conversation before. People with extensive experience in these kinds of games underestimate their skill in them. They assume with just a little bit of work or a single tip is all it takes. I can't do Metroid romrack midair morph balls since my hands don't move that fast anymore, and I can't parse color-coded messes in realtime when only a cascade or groups of five or more even matter. I can still beat Symphony of the Night and Dark Souls, so I don't think I'm that bad at games yet, but this is a visual language and twitch reflex skills that require considerable physical ability and practice.

I don't think it should be made easier or even more accessible, but there should be alternate ways to unlock story beats.

[FCC]

Originally posted by BtB:

I had to slow the first three levels to one quarter speed and the last one to one eighth speed to beat it.

How did you slow down the game? The FPS counter on the faux-emulator seems to give a hint that you can change the clock speed of the game, but I wasn't able to find instructions/key-presses for how to do so. Clicking on the number also didn't work.

I came into this thread to also commiserate that the final boss is insane, and her victory laugh haunts me while I've already been beaten psychologically by the wall of dud blocks.

I'm tempted to break out the programmable macro keyboard so I can plan out my keyboard presses and auto pause, in an attempt to turn this game into a turn-based challenge. And so far this is all I can accomplish already knowing about the press S/down to reveal the board and pause tricks. At least mercifully I do find the first 3 opponents fairly straightforward to breeze by.

PS: Also thanks for the jokes about Puyo Puyo. Looking guides up for that game is all amusing, helpful, and horrifying when I realize that there are people who are setting up 8-chains *in real time* without abusing a pause feature.