A game that defies genre. Would you consider that to be a compliment? In many cases, I would. Not being able to define a game means that it successfully combined the best traits of several genres and avoided the pitfalls in each of them. However, it’s not too often we see anything other than the usual combinations, such as action-RPG, stealth-action, or even the occasional platform-RPG. Henry Hatsworth is definitely one of those games that combines genre… but it does it defy those genres? Read more after the jump!
Presentation
Henry Hatsworth is a classy gentleman (all the cool kids are), complete with pith helmet and mustache and he’s looking to get even classier. Using his explorer know-how, Hatsworth starts searching for the Golden Suit to remain the number one explorer in the Pompous Adventurers’ Club (yes, I am serious) and unwittingly unleashes the Puzzle Realm on to Tealand (yes, I am still serious) Now, Hatsworth is in a race against his archnemesis to find all the suit pieces and seal the Puzzle Realm.
Obviously, this game is over-the top. The whole game is like that. Every character, every level, they’re all absurd. Unfortunately, to an extent, that also goes towards the designs and the music feeling a little bit childish and generic. While the characters were funny and enjoyable to look at, they felt like they could have been used in any child’s game and fit in perfectly. It’s a good thing that doesn’t distract from the game’s writing, which is some of the funniest I’ve seen in a video game (especially everything Lance Bason, Sky Pirate Magazine’s Handsomest Most Eligible Bachelor of the Year, says and does). Teatime is, in and of itself, a hysterical concept, but more on that later.
The sound and music are similar, in the way that they hit extremes: they can be really good… or really bad. I don’t mean bad as in, the low quality stuff that sounds/looks so incredibly awful it’s memorable. It’s mediocre and for a game this creative, it’s almost insulting that not everything is actually hitting an extreme. The characters speak in a Banjo-Kazooie jargon which is, once again, hysterical. Hatsworth has his pompous laughter and Banson has his Sky Pirate “HaHA!” It’s a good time and this game has my favorite sound clip of all time, which is Hatsworth saying “Good show!” I also wish I could listen to Banson’s battle music in place of every other video game boss soundtrack.
Gameplay
Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure combines three game types that seem essentially incompatible to become the first puzzle-platformer-action game. The platformer action portion of the game is what you’ll be spending most of your time in. Initially, the game could be mistaken for its own platform, brawling game, complete with combos. However, the game gets a little more complex when the Puzzle Realm comes into play, introducing the bottom screen. The bottom screen is a match-three puzzle game. There are several types of puzzle blocks: power-ups, hearts, lives… and enemies. Enemies you defeat on the top-screen turn into blocks on the bottom and when they reach the top of the screen, they cause quite a bit of trouble for you and make the already difficult fight even harder. Good thing you have your super meter! If you get rid of enough blocks, you can go into Tea Time mode and get into a giant robot suit (this is no laughing matter, stop that.)
There are a total of 5 worlds, each one housing seven to eight levels and one boss so it’ll take about three hours to run through… but only if you’re one of the best gamers ever. The thing about Henry Hatsworth is it’s hard. I don’t mean something like the hard mode on Bioshock, where you still have the revival chambers every couple of feet. I mean Mega Man 2 difficult. The first two worlds are relatively easy; I don’t think I died more than three times during either of them, including the boss fights. Around the third world though, the game was kicking sand in my face, calling me a wimp, and stealing my girlfriend. I hadn’t spent more than five or six lives yet, and the boss took away 1o of them. Then, in the fourth world, you realize that you’ve made a mistake. You never should have done this. You’re in over your head.
See, the reason a lot of this game is hard is because it’s trying to make what I think is deliberately bad level design and it’s successful. The level design ends up being so difficult that it’s good. Unfortunately, it can also become frustrating. While the levels are usually fun, clever, and challenging, at some points they are irritating from a mixture of enemy placement and being too long. Unfortunately, levels can take quite a while to complete and they run from 5 minutes to 30 to more, depending on competence. Checkpoints are rare, appearing only at the beginning of every new area, a decision to emulate its forefather, Megaman.
Frankly, the game’s biggest weakness is the puzzle mode. I always dread switching to the bottom screen just so I could survive on the top a little longer. It’s almost half of a game and the designers thought, “Hey, the platforming part of the game is pretty solid, so let’s cut development on the bottom.” The idea is quite clever and integral to enjoying the whole game, but ultimately feels like half of a game and it excludes something from the final cut. In the end, I didn’t really mind too much. The rest of the game was too enjoyable for one part to put a hamper on my fun.
Also, sadly, you probably won’t get much replay value out of this once you’re through. There are a few secret levels that get you more golden suit pieces, but they can be frustrating to find and I doubt you’ll want any more of that once it’s over. There is a hard mode unlocked after beating the game, but research shows the most likely outcome of playing through hard mode is impotence.
The Last Word
The Good
- Funny game. Art and music is solid
- Very deep brawler
- One of the more challenging games I’ve come across.
The Bad
- Puzzle mode is weak.
- Music and art can be generic and childish
- The “challenging” part is due to throwbacks to Megaman and feels like bad level design.
Henry Hatsworth is a very clever, very funny game that falls short of being the perfect hardcore DS game because of a questionable art style and a lackluster puzzle mode.
Final Score: 9.0 out of 10
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