Henry Hatsworth a puzzling success

RATING: 8.5 / 10
PLATFORM: DS
GENRE: Puzzle/Platform
PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION: Buy


Henry Hatsworth & the puzzling adventure is a delightful hybrid of a side scrolling platformer and bejeweled like puzzle game. As a British Adventure you accidentally trigger an artifact that releases creatures from the puzzle world into your own and now it is your job to send them back. However since this is a platform puzzle hybrid you got defeat monsters in both the platform and puzzle realms. To defeat monsters in the platform world you get to use a sword and gun to perform some pretty fun combos. Your sword is your primary weapon as the gun uses up some of your magic gauge, there are other weapons as well but Im not going to spoil it for you. So as you destroy monsters in the platform world your puzzle time gauge will rise and some of the monsters will be turned into blocks on the bottom screen of your DS. This bottom screen of blocks is constantly rising and your goal is to make sure the monster do not make it back to the top screen. This is where the puzzle aspect of the game comes in as you must match up blocks of three to destroy the monster block and collect item blocks. You can switch from the platform mode to the puzzle solving mode when ever your puzzle time gauge is not empty. The more the gauge is filled the more time you have to line up blocks. Now as you destroy blocks you gain energy in your power up gauge which lets you use weapons and your special attack "Tea Time" a powerful robot armor suit (you will have to play the game to see what I mean).

So now that you have a glimpse of the mechanics lets talk about how the over all game played. Henry Hatsworth is one of the best DS games I have played in a while as it is very well polished and very addicting. Though the platform to puzzle game mechanic switch can tend to disrupt game flow at times by making both genres gamplay effect the other the game adds a great deal of depth. Henry Hatsworth at first might seem a little easy at first but accelerates it difficulty nicely making the game challenging for any gamer. My favorite thing about Henry Hatsworth's is that developer establish that Henry Hatsworth is a unique experience and they don't try to cover up the innovation with cookie cutter story or mechanics. The game is all well themed and provides a fun experience from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend buying this game.