Chime at a first glance looks like Tetris and Luminise, with a simple concept to make quads to fill the grid with in time with a musical twist. Does this game ring a bell to you or just a dull sound?

It is where the gameplay of Chime shine and rely on the most. You make quads from random shapes that are given. Filling up the grid is the basic goal, so as long as you have time which you chose from 9 minutes, 6 minutes and 3 minutes, but there is a free mode. You can gain some more time if you can get coverage bonuses. If you fail to fill cover the grid with in time, its game over, bringing you to the score screen. If not, the grid clears up so you can do it again with the score you gained and what time remains left. Expanding a quad can give you more points, but there is a time limit to that itself and once it is done it covers that portion of the grid. Sometimes you may end up just trying to expand a quad than complete the grid. You can place another shape in the covered area once the beat line passes it. In most cases you will have a leftover block from a quad that did not fit in. This also has a time limit; enough passes from a beat line, leftovers are removed and you lose all of your multiplier. The problem there is that you lose all leftovers, even newly formed leftovers; it may be helpful in some cases.

The sound is great with the 6 soundtracks from different artist giving flavor for each level, but more is always welcomed. The track loops but varies of beats are made as the beat line passes over shapes, making more music. The graphics are not the greatest, but fit in just fine. Colors are vibrant and differ in each level. The background grows more as you fill the grid, but it goes back dark to indicate you lost your multiplier and leftover blocks. Each level has its own grid and color, some shapes are only on a certain level.

An interactive tutorial than a text one would have been more than helpful, but it does tell you everything you need to know. It has one more soundtrack bringing it a total a 6 from 5 on the Xbox 360, which is the well-known song from Valve’s Portal, “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton. There are achievements using Steamworks and leaderboards who you can compare you score to your friends and other players alike.

Chime is just five dollars on Steam and every time the game is bought, a portion of it will be donated to the non-profit charity OneBigGame. The game can become addicting once you get over the learning curve and start making quads left and right. If you love puzzle games with music or just like donating to charity, then this game is recommend.

I give this game a four out of five.

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