Writings of Mass Deduction

This game is insanely good. It’s a Dream/Build/Play contest finalist which has unbelievably polished presentation that easily would have justified an Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) release costing 800 Microsoft Points, *ten times* more than this 80 MSP game costs. It has a similar basic gravity-defying/level-traversing premise to XBLA game “Ilomilo”, except more of almost everything. More characters to switch between as you solve puzzles, big levels to traverse, lots to do on those big levels (gravity switches, colour-coded bridges, and more), local (ie. offline) co-op multiplayer for up to four players, 40 levels to puzzle through, tonnes of enemies and obstacles to get past, and even a level editor that the develop promises is fully featured (as in, has all the tools the developer used to make the levels included in the game). Oh, and did I mention that you can share your user-created levels across Xbox Live with your friends? Seriously, where the heck did “Alien Jelly” come from, and why am I not hearing absolutely everyone talking about it?

But it gets better. You can rewind time, using a game mechanic pioneered by original Xbox classic “Blinx: The Time Sweeper”, and indie game “Timeslip”. That actually enhances replay value, as using the rewind function hurts your score and that encourages replays to get your score higher. There are things to collect and, while optional, they enhance your score which also features into replay value for the perfectionist puzzlers amongst us. Seriously people, just get this game.

Here’s what the developer (Collective Mass) has to say about the game:

“A 3D puzzle game in which you have to push crates, rotate the world, evade robots, dodge huge spiky things and figure out how to get home. Once you are done playing the 40 brain-twisting levels, you can try your hand at making them with the Build-O-Matic fully featured level editor. Share your levels with your friends or work together to solve any level with up to four player local co-op.”