4cr Review – Honeycomb Beat (DS)
I remember when I was younger, I picked up one of those Tiger “Lights Out” toys. The premise was simple; There was a grid of buttons, some of which were lit up. Your goal was to get all the lights to go out by pressing the correct sequence of buttons. Whenever you pressed a button all adjacent buttons that were lit went out, and any that were already out became illuminated. Only by finding the correct sequence of these buttons could you get all of the lights out and move on to the next puzzle. I loved the thing. I used to drag it wherever I went. Before Lights Out, I had been playing Tetris on my old Gameboy whenever I would go anywhere. After Lights Out, the game was my world. So, what does this old Tiger Electronics game have to do with Nintendo DS? Read on, my friend.
Honeycomb Beat is a puzzle game from Hudson. The premise is much like that Lights Out game. You have to press the hex “buttons” to get all of them to “turn off.” In other words, get them to turn white. The main difference between the two games is that instead of being laid out in a grid, the buttons are laid out in a honeycomb shape. Once you solve one puzzle, it opens up more, also in a honeycomb type shape.
There are two game modes in Honeycomb Beat. The first one (and the one I have played the most of) is the very uniquely titled “Puzzle mode.” Puzzle mode is just like the Lights Out game I mentioned before. You tap on your hexes to get all of the hexes on the play field to go out. The game starts out very easy. You’ll start the first dozen or two puzzles and wonder to yourself “is this it?” Trust me, the game gets much harder. Once you get into locked hexes and the like, you’ll be in for a frustratingly sweet treat.
The other mode (which admittedly I haven’t played much) is Evolution mode. In Evolution mode, rows of hexes rise from the bottom of the screen to the top. It is your goal to clear lines of hexes in order to get the line to disappear. You are rushing against time to do so, as once the rows reach the top of the screen, its game over. From what little of this mode I have played, I have to say it’s pretty addicting itself, although not quite as much as the Puzzle mode.
Honeycomb Beat is a perfect example of a great handheld game. It’s something you can pick up and play for a few minutes or a few hours. I am a huge fan of puzzle games, and Honeycomb Beat really doesn’t disappoint. And for $20, you can’t go wrong. While I may not have received a cool press item from Hudson (there’s still time, guys!), I still want to say that this is a terrific game that no puzzle fan should pass up. I am not a fan of numerical scores for games, so this one just gets a thumbs up from me.
Jody Anthony - May 2nd, 2007 - 
Dean on May 2, 2007 at 10:08 am
Sounds cool. My wife loves puzzle games, so maybe we’ll give this one a shot.
Silent K on May 2, 2007 at 10:21 am
Perfect review of this game – the first time I played it I was instantly reminded of Lights Out, which I too was quite addicted to.
There was a great GBA homebrew rom created for a homebrew coders competition in 2002 which emulated all of the original Lights Out levels – I had been playing that over and over until I found HoneyComb beat. The music in HB is also pretty good! The presentation is streamlined and the little unlockables are nice.
Solid game, and yeah @ $20, you really can’t go wrong for an excellent p/u&play title. ^_^
Matthew on May 2, 2007 at 10:58 am
This is a review I really really like. It just makes a heck of a lot more sense to me than most other reviews. But yeah, I’ve been finding myself getting into a lot more simple games these days. Especially the ones for DS. I just find them very enjoyable. I’ll definitely be checking this one out.
Baramos on May 2, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Sorry, I just can’t accept this Lights Out>Game Brick theory of yours. What’s next? Simon Says>Super Nintendo?
9th Sage on May 2, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Ah, I was thinking about getting this the other day, maybe I will now.
Jody on May 2, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Baramos – NOTHING is better than super nintendo
ALH on May 2, 2007 at 2:17 pm
lights out FTW. The fact that the tiger game.com had a touch screen cart version of that with a ton of levels and a high score table is what attracted me to buy one in the first place…i should have got a game boy, sure, but lights out was fun and the touch screen was a great input
ADB on May 3, 2007 at 12:17 am
Got it today at GameStop (after reading this). Enjoying it so far.
ohemgeez on May 3, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Awesome:!: Sounds like a game that’s right up my alley.
I haven’t played my DS lately though. I played the heck out of Puzzle Quest for about a week after it launched and then stopped cold turkey.
Instead, I’ve been playing some really good XBLA titles and Gears of War on my 360. Settlers of Catan just came out on XBLA yesterday(and it’s extremely well done), so unfortunately it may be awhile still before I get back into DS mode.
Thankfully, Summer is surprisingly close, and like many people I plan for a lot of gaming action during those sweet, precious 3-ish months. Even though that does mean the feared “SUMMER DROUGHT” season will be upon us, it also provides the perfect opportunity to tackle games like this one and others that I didn’t have time for during the recent busy season.
I’ve been planning to pick up a few things, mainly a version of the new Pokemon, next time I feel like driving to a GameStop, but it sounds like I’ll be throwing Honeycomb Beat on top of that pile now too!
Thanks for the heads up! It was a good review, or maybe I’d call it a promotional piece, seeing as you got a few of us to go buy it now!:P I’m gonna go check out some info on Lights Out and maybe look for an online remake. It does sound familiar, and it also sounds good.:D
P.S. What version of Pokemon do you think I should get, or does it matter? Give me your biased opinions.XD
Jody on May 3, 2007 at 3:14 pm
i think they are both the same, but I am playing pearl so I am trying to get people to play diamond so I can trade pokeymans with them, heh
60Hz on May 3, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Hmm yeah, i think there is even a flash demo for people to try out… lets see… ah here it is!
TRIAL
ohemgeez on May 7, 2007 at 6:26 pm
@ jody:
well i sprung for it and got diamond. unfortunately they didnt have any honeycomb beat in the store so that was a bummer, but then i started playing pokemon and cheered right back up again.
Crimson Warrior on May 13, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I hate those kinds of puzzles. They drive me nuts for hours. Fun to play against others, though, cuz I’m the fastest one at solving them. (SM64DS had a mini-game like this. Then it went multiplayer on NSMB.)