Grindstone Critic Reviews

One of the best puzzle games of the last decade and a perfect fit for the Switch, with its mix of tactical puzzle-solving, extreme violence, and charming visuals.

Honestly, Grindstoneis a game I’m ecstatic I finally got to try. If I hadn’t known it was originally for mobile, I wouldn’t have believed it. This is a high-quality adventure, and a reason I keep following the work of Capybara Games. It’s full of content, amazing art, and challenge galore. Yet it never gets so hard that I decided to stop playing for very long. Honestly, this is the best puzzle game I’ve played in a decade. It’s tremendous fun, and the only real downside is that sometimes the difficulty will spike unexpectedly. If you have a Nintendo Switch and are looking for a game to grind away the hours, this is a wonderful choice.

A puzzling masterpiece, Grindstone is easy to learn but hard to master. With a ridiculous amount of content and varied gameplay, Grindstone is the total package.

Grindstone is an example of a game which hits all the right notes and keeps up a quality in gameplay throughout that many struggle to maintain. The divine gameplay mechanics give a wonderful sense of control in spite of the randomness of how enemies fall, and the inputs of buying equipment or using currency to give temporary boosts gives ample opportunity for improvisation if things don’t go quite your way. I only wish there were more to play.

Grindstone is a fantastic puzzler that has well and truly gotten its hooks in me. What usually starts out as plans for a quick five-minute session soon unravels into hours. The wait from Apple Arcade to Nintendo Switch has been worth it, and Grindstone ends 2020 with a bang.

In Grindstone, each movement must be planned, taking into account not only the game itself, but the resources that we will obtain for the future, under a constant risk / reward system and all involved in a wonderful and colorful puzzle game. It's a masterpiece of the genre.

Grindstone on the Nintendo Switch is a puzzle game with origins in the mobile market, but don't let that deceive you: this is a real gem that will grab players' attention from the very beginning for hours on end, and where everything is delightfully addicting and marvelously executed. Anyone who thinks a game with origins on mobile devices cannot deliver a good experience on the Nintendo Switch should take a good look at Grindstone as soon as possible.

Grindstone is a puzzle game you can’t miss if you like the genre. Accessible but also tough, fun and full of content.

Another hit puzzle game from Capybara Games. Not on par with their Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, yet a very fine experience.

Grindstone is an excellent puzzle game, packed with a very long and challenging campaign and a solid gameplay that revisits match-3 mechanics in a different way.

Grindstone is arguably the most metal puzzle game of all time. The gameplay demands strategic thinking, but the presentation wants players to play at breakneck speeds to match the inner fury of the main character. At some point, whittling down the options for movement and executing huge combos becomes second nature, and that's when players can share in the intensity of what's on display. While a few remnants of its mobile design do hold it back from perfection, it's easy to recommend Jorj's bloody adventure to just about anyone.

Grindstone is the sort of puzzler that appeals to hardcore genre fans and casual gamers alike with its immediately gratifying gameplay.

Compelling to a fault, with a hypnotic and exhilarating central conceit, Grindstone is a tiny bit special. Hopefully, it won't be dismissed by players for being a mobile port, or being mistaken for a "match-three" game akin to Candy Crush – it's not. A full-featured, elegantly designed experience, Capybara's action-puzzle-tactics game is a tiny marvel and we'd strongly recommend it to any and all Switch owners. Ever-so-slight resource exhaustion is the only thing letting it down, but it's easily forgiven when smashing seven shades of shawarma out of creeps is so flipping fun. We say it's time to reverse that well-worn idiom and put your yes to the Grindstone.