She is like a pretzel with too much salt. NO she was like meat lovers pizza with only one bite of meat. when I started her up she came at me with the typical array of weapons most puzzle games that boast to have a story tend to do. She had the expicit fantasy theme, the boistrous all of nothing music, the cute but elborate graphical fairies, buttons, whizzles and whigets. but I blew past all that because I have done it so many times before. I have kinda given up on the hope of any puzzle game incorporating a story as an intregral inseperable part of the puzzle itself. so I get the baby started. I was pleased with initial premise of her. She introduced herself with one face, then switched character to another, rode that one out for a spell, then once again another somersault face-change. needless to say I was pleased. I like surprises. eventually I came to understand that former and latter faces were mere attempts to keep things fresh, a little sugar to compliment her salty meat, her middle face. and I appreciate that. shows that she really cares about (me).
Her array of faces, her puzzles, boasted mechanics I had seen done before in games like Tiny Bang Story, Axel and Pixel etc. though not on the same level. But her meat, where she clearly focused the majority of her energy, the main puzzle of her arsenal, was impressive…….until I started hoping. It took the mechanics of the game Lucid, and added a whole slew of extra little goodies that made it more of the adventure like her premise promised instead of a simple puzzle with many levels. BUT she couldn’t keep up with my insatiable curiosity.
I would have even been happy if she trailed behind me a couple steps or so. She had already brought so much to the table, I was willing to forgive. AND I DID!!!!!! I played her and played her and played her, and with each “adventures” end I was hoping it to lead to the real adventure, but was always met with disillusionment. But what really chaps my hide is how she ended.
I sink my teeth into her meat, and I liked what I was tasting. The first couple levels introducing a new mechanic. Powerups allowing me more options of moving her energy past all the roadblocks and towards all the road openers, But soon there were no longer anything new to show and all she was left with was her level design because there was just no way she would get 65 levels of joy off of the few mechanics involved in her puzzle. But she must’ve slept through that part of game making class because for 63 levels, it was all the same. Move her energy from point A to point B by making chains of like colored gems to open up paths. 63 levels of that. Make the chains, charge of the powerup, open the path, watch the energy flow. There was no intuitive level design, no incorporation of the various elements of which each world was apart of, just slip, broooop, and tickle tickle tickle.
If that was all she would be than I would have been ok with it. Choose your path and live it. BUT SHE HAD TO GIVE ME A TASTE of what I wanted her to be the entire game with her last 2 levels!!!! And it hurt. Cuz it was savory; savory as STEAK ON STEAK ON STEAK!!!!!. (Of course I understand that this flavor could have been exaggerated by my starvation for it.)
Imagine the cruelty. Dangling a slab of steak in front of a starving dog for hours. Then giving it one little morsel and consuming the rest right there in his face. I wont even try to explain how awesome the last 2 levels were. they were just ingenious displays of the level design BEING the puzzle, flipping the table completely on top of the puzzle itself. If only she introduced this mind mesmerizing tantilation even 10 levels earlier. Imagine having a puzzle inside a puzzle inside a puzzle. The inceptive complexity, the endless ingenuity. And I was there.……maybe for the last time.
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