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NOVA
review | COMMODORE 64
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Publisher: Game On.
Developer: Matthias Kramm. Released: December 1993. Genre: Puzzle. Posted 28th February 2026. By Tom Clare © 2026 |
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There’s something immensely satisfying about a clever puzzle concept that’s made good on. Nova is a heartening reminder that, for all the technical wizardry and graphical pyrotechnics we’ve been invited to bask in as gaming has continued to evolve, the medium is quite capable of enthralling us with a smattering of pixels and a well-framed problem to solve.
Released on the cover disk of Germany’s Game On magazine in the winter of 1993, Nova is a fairly straightforward concept to grasp. Each level tasks the player with directing one or more beams into a variable number of outlets. Once every outlet is receiving a beam, the level is complete. The player possesses a limited, specific selection of blocks to place and influence the direction of light. These comprise directional angles, blocks to stop or slow the travel of light, splitters to send it in additional directions, and cross-sections that allow light to pass through the same block along horizontal and vertical trajectories. Whilst there are shades of Pipe Mania in the layouts, Nova feels notably more open-ended, with the player often having to work backwards from the endpoint to find a route that works.
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Level 7 starts a run of trickier levels, but part of the fun is trying lots of different solutions
The first half-a-dozen puzzles prove fairly easy going, before the level ‘Inside Out’ precipitates the beginning of a run of fiendish headscratchers. Plotting routes for the beams means engineering space so they don’t collide en route to the goal. Levels like ‘Stonehenge’ challenge the player to navigate winding tunnels with a limited number of blocks, ensuring you must identify the absolute shortest, most economical direction changes. Then there are stages like ‘The 3rd Dimension’, where large portions of the playing space are blocked by debris, forcing the player to think outside the box and devise more circuitous routes.
Central to the game’s addictive qualities is the ability to fire the beam at any point with a tap of the spacebar. Whilst doing so ends the level, the instant-restart nature means it rewards trying different approaches, and sometimes, a bit of lateral thinking pay offs. Forebears such as Deflektor placed considerable constraints on both time and lives, meaning players had to hope their ideas paid off quickly, else they faced defeat, and a lot of traipsing over old ground. Some levels can be solved straightaway, whereas others will have you tinkering for ages. Crucially though, Nova remains compelling throughout, and its premise proves highly rewarding.
Central to the game’s addictive qualities is the ability to fire the beam at any point with a tap of the spacebar. Whilst doing so ends the level, the instant-restart nature means it rewards trying different approaches, and sometimes, a bit of lateral thinking pay offs. Forebears such as Deflektor placed considerable constraints on both time and lives, meaning players had to hope their ideas paid off quickly, else they faced defeat, and a lot of traipsing over old ground. Some levels can be solved straightaway, whereas others will have you tinkering for ages. Crucially though, Nova remains compelling throughout, and its premise proves highly rewarding.
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Even accounting for its genre’s often modest standards of presentation, Nova isn’t the most dynamic of games, with muted colour schemes and clean but basic blocks. There isn’t a lot of visual variety, and a little bit of detailing here and there wouldn’t have gone amiss. Still, key aspects such as level names (which conveniently double as passwords) are displayed attractively, and the manner in which beams split and expand on the trickier levels has its own beauty. The music proves a real highlight: a space sci-fi earworm that serves as a fine accompaniment to the cerebral gameplay.
The game’s only real weakness lies in its longevity. Nova is pretty compact by puzzle game standards, with just 27 levels between the player and completion. This should still amount to several sessions of absorbing play, with the majority of the levels fitting a very finely sculpted difficulty curve. With the onus firmly on the journey to completion rather than improving scores or performances, replayability is somewhat constricted. Nova could have explored some of its features a little more: the blocks that slow and stop the beams are underused, with just a short flurry of levels in the middle taking advantage of them. Instead, the latter stages take the route of more convoluted, busy layouts to form the crux of its challenge, as players have to pick through a mass of blocks. It’s possible that ‘The Two Problems’ level will take as long to solve as all the other levels combined. There’s more in the tank, though the game would at least receive a sequel to help explore further avenues.
The game’s only real weakness lies in its longevity. Nova is pretty compact by puzzle game standards, with just 27 levels between the player and completion. This should still amount to several sessions of absorbing play, with the majority of the levels fitting a very finely sculpted difficulty curve. With the onus firmly on the journey to completion rather than improving scores or performances, replayability is somewhat constricted. Nova could have explored some of its features a little more: the blocks that slow and stop the beams are underused, with just a short flurry of levels in the middle taking advantage of them. Instead, the latter stages take the route of more convoluted, busy layouts to form the crux of its challenge, as players have to pick through a mass of blocks. It’s possible that ‘The Two Problems’ level will take as long to solve as all the other levels combined. There’s more in the tank, though the game would at least receive a sequel to help explore further avenues.
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A few small hindrances aside (needing a combination of keyboard and controller to operate a reasonably simple interface, for example), it’s a great puzzling premise and a richly satisfying challenge. Wasting little on finery, Nova delivers a setup that’s easy to grasp, luring in players with its well-crafted problem-solving gameplay, before turning up the wick with some devilish challenges that will have you trialling new routes and solutions for hours on end. Matthias Kramm’s effort is brain-boggling puzzling at its finest, and though it’s a little on the short side, to anyone chasing a cerebral challenge, it still comes heartily recommended.
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VERDICT
"An at-times enthralling puzzle game with fiendish logic teasers built around simple, easy-to-grasp mechanics. The only letdown is a shortage of levels, but it's well worth playing." OVERALL: 8/10 |
OTHER MOREISH PUZZLE GAMES REVIEWED
Pipe Mania (1989, Amiga)
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Columns (1990, Master System)
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