Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Lee Evans

There's a trend happening with puzzle games.  All of a sudden, puzzle games are being combined with different genres in a way we haven't seen before. Now they're getting their grubby little hands into platforming games.  One of these new puzzle-platformers is Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. 

Henry Hatsworth is an old-school British explorer-type who speaks with phrases like "Good show!" and "Quite right!"  He's in search of the mystical Gentleman's Suit and has to get it before the villainous Leopold Charles Anthony Weaselby the Third can get it.  The game's main concept is switching back and forth from a 2-D platformer to a block-switching puzzle game.  Henry Hatsworth is also part of EA's new initiative to develop new gaming properties.  Is this a property that they can run with?  Is it a good tweak to two different well-worn genres?  And, above all, is it fun to play?

Henry Hatsworth would not look out of place on the Game Boy Advance.  Almost everything is drawn with 2-D sprites with a good amount of detail.  The worlds are diverse with interesting locales.  You won't get bored looking at the graphics, that's for sure.

You may get a little bored looking at the repetitive enemies, though.  Most enemy sprites are repeated over and over and over again.  Sometimes they're pallet-swapped to show that it's a faster, more difficult enemy.  Still, as you will see, Henry Hatsworth is more than the sum of its parts.

The music is, for lack of a better word, schizophrenic.  I actually mean this in a good way.  You have your epic tracks during the levels that sound symphonic and bombastic enough to back up an intrepid explorer like Mr. Hatsworth.  You have the piano sonata that plays during his hilarious powerup routine.  You have the wild electric guitars that play when Henry rides in his giant, incongruous robot suit.  It's always changing and keeping you on your toes.  Some of the tracks, like the robot suit music, are repeated far too often, but they're not enough to drive you crazy.

In the platform sections, Henry controls about like you would expect a platform character to control.  He runs, jumps and swings his cane with aplomb.  It's good to see that they know what platform characters can and can't do, and they stick with that.  I never once got frustrated at the platforming controls.

The puzzle parts also handle really well.  You move your cursor around to different blocks and are able to swap them with the block to the left or right of it.  You can move the cursor with the D-pad or with your stylus.  Either works exceptionally well, although I mostly preferred the stylus.  There were also times when I wished that you could swap them vertically, but that might have made the puzzle portion needlessly complex.

As stated before, you're able to switch back and forth from the standard platforming level to the puzzle game at any time by hitting "X."  When in the puzzle game, you have a limited amount of time to play before it boots you back to the platforming stage.  In order to succeed, it's imperative that you learn how to use both portions of the game together.  For instance, every enemy you kill in the platforming stage goes down to the puzzle stage.  If you don't destroy it again in the puzzle stage, it'll come back and attack you on the platforming stage.

You can also power up your attacks in the platforming stage by proper use of the puzzle stage.  As an example, you gain access to a wide variety of projectiles that you can throw, like bullets or boomerangs.  After you release one, you're able to go to the puzzle portion, match a couple of blocks, and power up that weapon you just released.

Does this sound complex?  Don't be too nervous.  I thought I was going to be flustered beyond comprehension after the first level, but I soon picked it up and was flipping back and forth with no problem at all.  Once you start remembering to go back to the puzzle phase regularly, it stops being so frantic, and you develop a really nice rhythm.  The difficulty curve is such that you can make mistakes in the early going without too much apprehension.

You can also purchase additional upgrades by collecting coins throughout the levels.  Once you collect enough coins, you can improve your skill in melee or ranged combat, give yourself more health, or improve the length of time you're allowed to stay in the puzzle area.  All of these add layers of depth and enable you to customize your experience with Henry Hatsworth.

There are a couple of annoyances.  For instance, the boss fights are way too difficult.  I have no idea what they were thinking about making them so hard.  The one that sticks out in my mind is a battle against a deaf old man and his gargantuan nurse.  It took me about twenty tries to beat them, and I had to keep going back for extra lives.

Also, the flow of the levels leaves something to be desired.  Checkpoints are few and far between, so you'll sometimes battle through a large portion of level only to be ambushed by an enemy you weren't expecting and die.  Thereafter, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of that level and go all the way through AGAIN.

Despite its flaws, I had a great time with Henry Hatsworth. Taken by itself, the platforming in this game is reasonably fun, but certainly couldn't stand on its own.  Taken by itself, the puzzle game is a simple color-matching game that's nothing to write home about.  Combine the two together, however, and it's almost pitch perfect.

There are a ton of levels in Henry Hatsworth, and each one takes a long time to complete.  You'll probably spend about 10 hours trying to finish the whole thing, which is phenomenal for a handheld platform game.  You also can't underestimate how fun it is to see a genre that you may not have seen before.  I hope EA gives us more of Henry.

Let's review the questions from the beginning.

Is this property one that EA can run with?  Without a doubt, yes.  It has enough personality and intelligence to warm even the coldest gamer heart.

Is it a good tweak to two different well-worn genres?  Yes.  They didn't try and do too much.  They just took the parts that were the most fun out of each genre and combined them.

And, above all, is it fun to play?  Absolutely.  If you like platformers or puzzle games, try Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure.  You'll enjoy it.

Gaming Trend Score

85

1. Graphics: 80
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 80
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:85