This week we take a look at the newest puzzle and strategy games designed to push your brain power to the limits and frustrate you to the point where you forget to check the internet for the answer and just throw the television out the window…
And Yet It Moves
Console: Wii
Genre: Puzzle
Players: Single player
Rating: 7/10
This has to be one of the most visually appealing games of the year, ‘And Yet It Moves’ is literally a gaming feast for your eyes. The puzzle game is based around a world where everything is made out of paper, it is one entire paper collage world where everything has been ripped out of photos, movies and magazines.
As the player it is your chance to guide the character through a world where you will have to move the world around (no joking you have to actually flip the levels) you if you ever planning on clearing the game. With over seventeen levels you will encounter huge paper obstacles, boulders, gorillas, bats and more as you rip shred and tear your way through ‘And Yet It Moves’.
And Yet It Moves costs 1000 Wii Points
Tumble
Console: PlayStation 3
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1-2 players
Rating: 5/10
Fancy yourself as a budding architect? Have an eye for construction and demolition? Interested in waving a wand at the TV screen? Then Tumble is definitely for you! Tumble is PlayStation Move game designed to test your accuracy and precision as well as your attention to detail and of course your engineering degree from UCD. While the idea for the game is pretty simple (kind of sounds like Jenga but with a game controller) the game play itself is actually quite a challenge and very very infuriating at times.
Stacking blocks isn’t as simple as piling them up on top of each other, there is definitely an art to it and unfortunately we didn’t have the patience to perfect our skills. Tumble is more fun when you are competing against a friend and playing on your own is to say the least very boring after you have been playing for twenty minutes or so.
We will say that the colours and the stereoscopic 3D effects are pretty cool but again the pleasure of this fades rather quickly. For anyone with a 3D TV then we can imagine this joy would last longer but for those of with a regular HDTV 42inch plasma screen, the magic died too fast.
Limbo
Console: Xbox 360
Genre: Puzzle Platformer
Players: 1
Rating: 10/10
Limbo has been around since the end of August but we only started playing it last week and our little cross genre puzzle platforming heart has fallen in love with the game. Brought to us by Playdead, Limbo received major attention in it’s first week of release and high marks all around and it’s pretty clear why!
It is a terrifying world made of shadows and darkness and where very little light penetrates, here a young boy enters the world of Limbo to try and rescue his sister. You will need to smart and fast when playing the game, pulling levers, leaping over traps and avoiding the creatures that lurk within the shadows.
That might not sound challenging but take our word for it when we say we were scratching our heads and burning the midnight oil to clamber our way through Limbo. To cap it all off, the game is certainly the best looking out of the bunch and in this modern world of ours where we are consumed by beauty, then even if you aren’t a puzzle platform lover then you should buy the game just so you can treat your eyes to the beautiful and terrifying world of Limbo!
Limbo costs 1200 Xbox Live points.
