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The Daily Click ::. Downloads ::. Review Review: Unknown Game 5241
SquareRunner by Aggggge is a fun grid-based puzzle/reaction game. Presentation When you start up the game, you see an animated splash screen There's a title screen that also functions as a level select. Oddly enough, you have to scroll up to see further levels. You can choose to see a one-screen help screen in-game, which is indeed helpful. Overall, the presentation is minimalistic, but for this type of game, it doesn't need to be anything fancy. Gameplay The gameplay, simply put, rocks, epitomizing the idea of taking a simple concept and fully exploring all of the possibilities it provides. Your smiling spheroid avatar may merely be capable of moving in four directions and laying bombs that it picks up, but clever level design forces you to think on your toes in order to survive thirty increasingly challenging levels. The object of each level is to collect all of the coins scattered around and return to the exit portal, avoiding death by monsters or explosion. Laid bombs explode in a 3x3 grid, destroying certain blocks and exploding enemies, bombs, and TNT boxes. Explosions can also destroy coins, exits and yourself, adding to the strategy involved in each level. In addition, there are dirt blocks which are obstacles to enemies, but can be destroyed by you; spinners, which turn you 90 degrees; one-way tiles that can push you along a path; safe tiles from enemies; and switches that toggle colored barriers like in Link's Awakening. The only negative aspect of the gameplay is the semi-random movement of the enemies, which gives enemy-heavy levels slightly more of a twitch feel than the others. Graphics While simple, the graphics are appropriate. They aren't overly complicated enough as to detract from the gameplay, and the functions of most elements are obvious from their appearance. Sound and Music The music is nice, but forgettable. There's only one ingame theme, which is appropriately "puzzly" but gets old fast. The same can be said of the sound effects: appropriate, but repetitive. Lastability Aggggge has provided 30 tricky levels with SquareRunner, introducing enough new tricks and variations in each to make it worth trying them all. Levels range from outmaneuvering enemies (often releasing them from dirt prisons in order to plunder their gold coins) to solving tricky movement puzzles to conserving bombs and even to outrunning a chain reaction of explosions that threatens to destroy coins, the exit, and even you if you get too careless. It took me a couple of days (not full nonstop playing, mind you) to beat the first 27 levels, and I still haven't beat the last three, so I can't say if there's any immediate reward for beating them all other than immense satisfaction of solving these tricky and genuinely compelling puzzles. The only thing that would improve lastability would be if there were more puzzles, or even a level editor (c'mon, it's grid based! It just crying out for one). Overall, on the merits of its gameplay and great level design, SquareRunner is an excellent puzzle game.
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