A fun puzzler, if not a little challenging
I recently bought it as a reward for finishing my Christmas shopping. I was shocked at how easy it was to control, yet the thought that is required to pass a single level. This game is not one of those that it difficult because of an impossible control scheme, but because it requires at least a working brain to play.
As with most puzzle games, the graphics are not fantastic, with sparkling particle effects and explosions that melt your face with sheer appearance. They are simple, comic style graphics that give a nice, easy to look at presentation. Each part of the screen is easily recognisable from each other part; you are not required to gaze at the screen for a few seconds before you can separate the characters in the foreground from a turnip in the background. This is good, as seconds are precious in this game.
The level layout is simple. There are several floor to each 'situation' as the levels are known. Each situation holds different things, though most have some form of threat to the player and the other NPCs that you must save. How you evade these threats, though, is the puzzle part. As mentioned above, seconds are precious in this game. Each level has a time limit in which to complete. These are reasonable and you will find you may have quite a fraction of it remaining when you complete the earlier levels, but it will get closer and closer as you advance.
When you first start the game there are 100 different levels, though there seem to also be 100 more downloadable levels available once those are done (which may take longer than you expect).
The sound of the game is very good. Fires crackle, NPCs shout for help when you haven't found them yet and comment once you have, and he music is fast-paced which suits the atmosphere of the game. The only annoyance with sound is when there is an NPC nearby that you cannot yet reach and they keep yelling for help. It tends to grind on the nerves, but this rarely occurs, and you'll probably be too preoccupied with contemplating how you'll get to them to notice.
Conclusion: This is a nice puzzle game, that has a nice and simple control layout, plenty of content and a nice graphical style to match it. The only two complaints I have are the occasional annoying NPC and the price, thought the latter seems to have been compromised thanks to it's age (I grabbed a copy for £9.99).If you are a fan of such titles as Lemmings and Loco Roco, then try this.