If you have ever played games like ‘Dr. Mario’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Bejeweled’, or ‘Candy Crush’ and enjoyed them, then ‘Virus Infinite’ may be a colourful match for you. Virus Infinite was developed and published by Sky World Games and has taken clear inspiration from ‘Dr. Mario’.

Like all matching games of this ilk, there is no overarching plot. The idea is simple, get rid of the viruses.

As for gameplay, Virus Infinite defines itself as a logic/strategy puzzle game. I can certainly agree with the logic/strategy part but currently, with Early Access there is no puzzle part. The current two game modes, ‘Infinite’ and ‘Classic’ are not puzzle orientated.

When starting Infinite mode, you choose how fast the blocks fall on screen between slow, medium, and fast. You then choose how many viruses appear as the screen moves between 10 and 60 with increments changing by five. You then begin Infinite mode, and it is as exactly as it sounds, play for as long as you can until you fail. The longer you play the harder it becomes by increasing the speed in which the blocks move on screen.

There are only three colours to match, red, blue, and yellow and as you match them you fill up a power bar. When the bar is full you get a power block that will remove everything it touches around it. Whilst playing I did notice a weird speed-up on an appearing block. Without warning a block would be excessively fast compared to everything appearing before it. Once that block was placed the speed would then revert to its original speed. This was super annoying and caused much frustration in what is a very relaxing game mode. Once the game ends you can enter your name on the leaderboard.

Classic mode starts the same way as Infinite mode with a choice of speed and virus amounts. There is more choice in Classic mode as you get additional speeds of very fast and impossible, and the virus count goes as high as 100. Once your choices are made you start a game, and the goal is to clear the screen of all viruses. There are still only three colours to clear and there isn’t a power pill to help you. Once the screen is clear you can enter your name on the leaderboard.

Controls are basic as to be expected. With left and right movement, a spin to adjust the colours and vertical/horizontal position, a downward movement to quicken the blocks decent, and a slam where the block immediately falls into position with no further adjustments.

The graphics are bright, vibrant, and rich in colour. All set in a spacey sci-fi theme with sparkly particle effects, it matches nicely making it very visually pleasing.

The music is very soothing and a perfect match to chill out with the game. The music is very limited though, so fatigue of hearing the same tune over and over is a very real possibility. Sound effects are serviceable and don’t interfere with soothing music allowing for relaxing gameplay.

As it stands right now, Virus Infinite is a good start. With Early Access currently offering only two game modes for $21.95AU, it is a question you’ll have to ask yourself if it’s enough to jump on board now. Sky World Games will be adding more features and game modes. With a predicted early access time frame of 12 months, I will be keeping an eye on Virus Infinite. Once those additional features and the Ranking Fight and Campaign game modes have been added I will be certainly eager to revisit.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove