POSTED 2/2/12


PUDDLE

Konami
PS3/PSN (also on Xbox 360/XBLA)

New goo, blue goo. Gooey, gooey. Blue goo, new goo. Gluey, gluey. Right, we’d better get busy before Dr Seuss’ estate goes the jacksie sue...

We hark back to that most classic piece of 20th century literature (Fox in Socks, for any philistines reading) as goo is everywhere in the aceroonie-looking Puddle. We guess forming examples of the titular two-syllabler would be difficult without it. You can’t make puddles out of solid stuff.

The goo in question is many and varied in this entry to the genre that is puzzle: water, fertilizer, petrol, nitro-glycerine, molten alloy... Hmm, that last one sorta fucks up our solid stuff theory. Controls couldn’t be simpler if you jammed a crayon into their cranium: tilt left, tilt right. The object is to channel your currently assigned goo through various obstacle courses, getting enough safely from pointy-pointy A to pointy-pointy B. This, of course – well, of course assuming that you know how fluid tends to work - relies upon harnessing inertia, momentum and other physicsy kinda stuff.

The PS3 offers three control choices. Left and tight trigger (OK), Move (meh), and the DualShock’s inbuilt motion sensors, which is the equivalent of baby bear’s porridge – Just Right. Which confuses us, as porridge is generally oaty, whilst Just Right is more of a wheaty, ricey, corny and sultanafied concoction. What gives, Mr Kellogg?

To summarise, we’re talking a sort of liquid Lemmings, purloining elements from World of Goo, Marble Madness, Flower, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Mercury Hg and LocoRoco, along with elements from the periodical table, where as well as all the latest in magazines you’ll find several two letter symbols describing assorted chemicals – assuming you remove Al from the equation (poor aluminium), as naturally it’s just the periodic table.

Warning; a synonym for Puddle in this instance is ‘Stress’. It never-ever lets up. Hair will be torn out, at which time that gluey, gluey may prove rather handy.

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