When the Xbox One launched, casual puzzle game fans only had one title to look forward to: Peggle 2. Granted, it wasn't a must-have title for the launch of a new home console, but it certainly contrasts with the launch of the Xbox 360, which had Bejeweled 2 and Zuma in the Xbox Live Arcade as well as Hexic HD pre-installed on every 20GB HDD. The march toward more puzzle games happened slowly with Threes and a really bad version of Tetris before the floodgates opened with both Gems of War and Frozen Free Fall: Snowball Fight while backward compatibility brought a slew of puzzle titles from the Xbox 360. Sparkle 2 is the latest puzzle game to come out for the console, and it works out better than expected.

Though this type of match-three gameplay started out as early as Puzz Loop in the arcades, most people are familiar with it from PopCap's Zuma games. You take control of a rotating turret that shoots multicolored balls from a stationary position. Surrounding you is a path with a line or lines of multicolored balls. Their goal is to reach a hole and end your run. Your goal is to use create matches of three or more balls in the line to make that section disappear while other sections reform to continue their journey. The line is endless until you destroy enough balls, which causes the line to eventually end. From there, you get rid of the rest of the balls and continue to conquer different patterns.

Things start to become more interesting after you make three matches in a row and a random power-up appears on the field. You can activate it by hitting it with a ball, and a number of things can happen. Some of the more common include a wild card ball that matches any color it touches and a bomb that detonates anything in its vicinity. Other power-ups include getting rid of all instances of one color on the screen, a fireball that destroys a specific ball, or something that turns all of the balls it hits into one color so they can be destroyed in a later move. The power-ups give you a small chance to grab them before they disappear, but you can have multiple power-ups appear at the same time so long as you keep making consecutive matches.

Sparkle 2 expands this idea by having an upgradeable launcher. After finishing a set number of levels, you're given the chance to equip your launcher with one of 16 permanent upgrades. It starts small, such as the ability to launch balls faster, but the upgrades soon become more significant. You'll soon start each level with some of your progress meter filled or have the power-ups on the field spawn closer to you. You can outfit your launcher with up to four of them at a time, but the powers are separated into different sections, so you won't be able to do this until much later.

Initially, the game only has one playable mode: Story. The plot revolves around you finding five ancient keys to unlock a great secret. The story doesn't really show until you reach a monument in the map, where you're given a slightly animated cut scene with a narrator. As a result, the game isn't strong on the narrative side, but since there are around 100 levels, you won't really mind.

Truthfully, Sparkle 2 doesn't feel overly difficult. Most of the levels can easily be completed the first time around, and you'll definitely make it until the 75% mark, when things become more difficult. Even then, you won't feel completely stuck on a stage, so completing the Story mode isn't going to be difficult. Having said that, finishing it the first time unlocks a Hard difficulty level followed by Nightmare, so there's still some challenge to be had.

Once you make some significant progress in Story mode, you'll unlock other modes. Survival mode is exactly what it sounds like, but there is a progression system in place. You start with only two level layouts available, but your performance on each one is graded by a star level, depending on how long you last. Getting more stars opens up more Survival levels, giving you over 20 stages overall. The idea of having some longevity in modes carries over to the two other modes. Challenge mode has 24 different stages where you have to beat each one three to five times, each with increasing difficulty. Meanwhile, Cataclysm mode has 20 different stages set at the highest difficulty possible. Overall, there's plenty of gameplay before the whole package is exhausted.

There are a few odd gameplay choices. For starters, there is no aiming guide until you hold down the shooting button, a departure from other titles that display the guide at all times. Also, the game doesn't have a point system. No matter which mode is chosen, all the title cares about is whether or not you complete it. Again, there are plenty of modes to keep a puzzle fan busy, but the removal of something that is often seen as a staple of the genre can be perplexing.

As far as presentation goes, the game is just fine. It looks good, especially the backgrounds that are detailed enough to see individual blades of grass, while the balls have some nice decorative touches in both regular and colorblind modes. It isn't exactly a graphical showcase, but since puzzle games don't need to be, the visuals work well enough. The sound, however, is excellent mainly because of the soundtrack. Each piece is whimsical yet epic, making you think that there's been some heavy influence from Danny Elfman. The shift from fun music to dread as the line of balls gets closer to the hole can be nerve-wracking, and it is used very effectively here. The only issue is that the transition doesn't happen quickly enough to match the action on-screen.

Though it can feel very familiar at first, Sparkle 2 is different enough to be fun. The power-ups are different from what similar games have offered, but the launcher's upgrade system provides some depth. There are plenty of modes included, and each one is lengthy enough to keep players engaged for quite some time. Even if you already have the Zuma games, Sparkle 2 is worth getting for match-three puzzle game fans.

Score: 8.0/10