Downloadable Game of the Week
Pushmo
For: Nintendo 3DS (via Nintendo eShop)
From: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo
Price: $US7
Billy O'Keefe
Though it took its sweet time, a stream of exciting original games is trickling on to Nintendo's new handheld. Elsewhere, and following an even longer wait, Nintendo's downloadable portable games channel is finally finding a groove.
No game embodies the light at the end of both tunnels quite so perfectly as Pushmo, a $US7 gem that also ranks among the best puzzle games to appear on any platform this past year.
In Pushmo, the goal of each level is to rescue a kid who's stuck atop a structure and has no safe way to get down. You play as Mallo, and you have complete control of his running and jumping prowess.
Were the structures arranged accessibly, Mallo could simply climb them and rescue the kid. Of course, they are not. Each structure is composed of multiple blocks of different shapes, and your task is to push and pull each piece (towards or away from you, but not side to side) until they are arranged in such a way that Mallo can navigate upwards and save the kid.
As Mallo's mentor, Papa Blox, reveals different methods for arranging pieces, Pushmo offers some disconcertingly elementary levels on which to practise. It's enough to wonder if the entire game will be entirely too easy to enjoy.
But around level 20, the tricks learned in those easy early levels start to manifest in more intricate ways.
At around level 55, Pushmo starts revealing its true self. The structures - sometimes formed in the shape of objects, animals or Nintendo characters - grow increasingly intricate and require layers of manipulation before a clear solution takes shape.
A few additional wrinkles - manholes that warp Mallo around a level, switches that dictate which pieces can be manipulated at a given moment - eventually join the fray to complicate things further.
Pushmo comes with a staggering 250 levels baked in, and as the level count rises, it mixes patterns, switches and warp spots to create arrangements that are deviously clever and often look impossible to solve at first glance.
The fun, naturally, comes from the realisation that a solution really does exist in there somewhere, and Pushmo takes wonderful measures to never let that fun degenerate into frustration.
There are, for instance, no unnecessary limitations in place. No time limit means you are free to approach a puzzle as methodically as you please, and the lack of a move limit means you can engage in reckless trial and error.
If you become hopelessly tangled, a reset switch at the far end of the level instantly resets everything. And a rewind button literally rewinds your progress if you make a mistake or two and want to hit the undo button without starting over. Finally, the option to skip levels and return later avails itself if you get stuck for a while.
None of these assists dumbs Pushmo down in any way whatsoever, but all of them combine to make even the most deviously difficult level a total pleasure to slowly pick apart and solve.
Also a pleasure: Pushmo's presentation. Mallo and friends are the most delightful characters to debut in a Nintendo-branded game in years, and every facet of the game - from polished controls to vibrant level designs to an excellent use of stereoscopic 3D - would look first-rate in a $US50 retail game.
For your $7, Pushmo also throws in a shockingly robust level editor, complete with a means to trade created levels with other players. It's easy to use, it works, and if Pushmo develops an active online community, the best value on the 3DS will only get better.
