Pushmo [3DS]

[Jame Vuong]

Pushmo is an eShop download only title from Intelligent Systems (who if you don’t know already, are creators of big hits such as Advanced Wars, Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, WarioWare and I would love to now say, Pushmo). It’s a single player puzzle game priced at $6.99 in the U.S and is known as Pullblox in the UK and EU, priced at £5.40 and €6 respectively. So now we’ve got the brief introduction out of the way, let’s get down to business.

I think if I was to describe the graphics of Pushmo in one word, I would say, it looks very “Nintendo”. So what do I mean when I say very “Nintendo”? Well when I think of Nintendo graphics, I always think nice bright bold colours, everything looking very clean, soft and simple, and quite often, so cute that it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. This description I feel just about suits Pushmo to a tee, so no you are not going to get mind blowing realistic graphics from this game and we probably never will from Nintendo, but that is by no means a bad thing. Nintendo do not pride themselves on trying to achieve realism, they pride themselves on being unique and creative and just with other Nintendo titles, you can see art style is a priority when it comes to graphics and as usual, it works great.

When it comes to the 3D effect, I feel it works really well with the game especially since the game itself uses 3D structures as an important part of the game. It is quite subtle, but still not really necessary if you prefer not to have it, since I don’t find it helps game play at all, since the games 3D structures are made clear enough without the 3D effect. I personally turn on the 3D every now and then though because I still think it looks cooler, but when I really start getting into the game, I turn it off completely because I find the colour without it on is clearer to see while giving extended battery without it on too.

I can keep this section quite sweet and short really since there isn’t that much sound in the game. There are only a few tracks that loop over and over again. It would have been perfect if they created a unique track for each of the 11 levels at least, but that’s just me being greedy. Saying that though, the soundtrack suits the game well and is quite simple and subtle like the rest of the game. As far as sound effects goes, again, everything is as it should be. With some nice cute sound effects like the flapping of the arms, when you’ve pulled too far or about to fall off the edge and hear that wobbling sound. Overall, they have certainly done their job in the sound department, just without ever really excelling.

So this is where the game really excels, the simple yet genius mechanics of the game. I won’t delve into too much detail for the story (or lack of it), since this has what in my opinion has always been one of Nintendo games weaker areas and Pushmo does nothing to change that. Basically, you take control of strange looking character in a sumo costume called Mallo and this old geezer makes these strange 3D structures for kids to play with. So the problem, for some reason, when these kids have climbed to the top of all these structures and got trapped in them somehow, great toy old geezer! But anyways, since this old geezer is obviously too old to climb up and save them, it’s your job to do it because you’re so kind. He teaches you everything you need to know along the way, but doesn’t offer you much help late on in the game since by then he is hoping you are good enough to do it on your own. So the goal of every stage is to get to where the kid has been trapped (or flag a if you’ve saved the kid already for that stage). To do this, you basically push and pull blocks that make up the structure and jump on top of them trying to find a route to the top.

It all seems pretty easy when you’re doing the first couple of levels and you might start thinking you’ve mastered the game already, but then the game gets progressively harder and you start needing to perform advanced jumps (which you can learn and practice in a tutorial section) and start having to think a lot more carefully about the route you need to take. Special coloured buttons and ladders get introduced a bit further into the game too to make things even more complicated. I do like a good puzzle and a few of the puzzles took up to a good half an hour to get pass and the sense of satisfaction for completing one of the hard puzzles feels great. Credit to the creators of the levels though, they got the difficulty for the stages spot on, most of them felt somewhat challenging but at the same time, you always wanted to try that little bit longer because you knew you was getting closer. To sum up the gameplay, I felt this was a perfect example of how a game part of the puzzle genre should be, challenging yet not too frustrating, while feeling rewarding after completing each stage.

There is often a problem with some puzzle games in this area, since after you complete the puzzles in a game, you sometimes can be left with nothing to do. Thankfully though, Intelligent Systems has that covered, not only are there the 250 stages, there is also a level creator for the game which by my calculation, pretty much allows for a near unlimited possible number of puzzles.

The puzzles original puzzles by Intelligent Systems also show how creative you can be too with the level designs, they tons of levels with designs based on Nintendo Characters and climbing to the top of that Mario Head or Link is just brilliant, but climbing to the top of a Yoshi you might of made, will feel even better. And going even one better, watching a friend struggle to complete a level based on your favourite character that you created! You can even transform your levels into a QR code for you to send around to be scanned by anyone with a 3DS to play, there are tons of communities where you can find QR codes of levels people design so if you ever feel like it, it won’t be hard for you to find new stages. The only one thing they may have dropped the ball on, is that it would have been nice to maybe include the ability to send stages to your friends with Pushmo via spotpass, but that really is just nit-picking now.

So is it worth the $6.99/£5.40/€6?? Unless you really hate puzzle games, I would strongly recommend you buying this game, I honestly believe that it isn’t even that far off some full retail games and a ton better than any shovelware that pop up at full retail price, so for the price, I would consider it a bargain. I really hope Nintendo can carry on producing games of this quality for that price, and then I really could see them competing with the likes of Angry Birds and friends in a very competitive market, because these are the type of games that are needed to compete. Well done to Intelligent Systems for making that first step!

I think I’ve gone into enough detail about the game now, so I feel all that is left for me to do, is give this game a score and with all the praise I’ve rained on the game, I don’t think many will be surprised by the score I give it.

 

[Star Bright]

Great review; I'd definitely get it if I had a 3DS.

 

[Sketch]

Great review. Summed up pretty much everything about this great game! It gets so hard later on in the game. ;-;