
Have you ever played with one of those Fisher-Price shape things? They come in a polygonal shape like thing and are usually red and blue; you have a bazillion yellow shapes like triangle, oval, clover...and you have to try and fit them into the right spot on the polygon. Once you fill it up or grow frustrated, you pull on two triangular handles and empty it. Yeah...you know the one, for babies? Keep that in mind when I describe this game to you. I'll see if I can't find an image for those who have NO idea what I'm talking about because they were hatched fully grown.
You begin with this lovely, adorable, saccharine planet (the planet Roo) that gets all of its nauseating cuddliness from falling shapes. (I know...just stay with me because the story is for the kids, the game is for you.) The King wants all of the shapes for himself, because as we all know, power corrupts! When he starts collecting the shapes, the poor Roogoos turn into the nefarious Woohoos and everything goes awry. It is your job to ensure that the pieces land safely on the planet.
How you ask? How can I save the poor Roogoos?
You have to get the shapes out of the hands of the greedy King and on to the surface of the planet where they belong. This is where your !337 gaming skills come into play. Don't let the images fool you, it may look all cute and cuddly and easy...it may even lull you into thinking so for the first few levels. Hah! I tell you, hah! (I should so not write at 2am.)
As a Roogoo not yet turned to do the dark side, you'll have built disks to help the shapes land safely. However, you don't know the trajectory of the shapes. You'll need to turn the discs accordingly. Ok...it's easier than it sounds, at first.
A triangle drops down. You turn the first disc so the triangle falls though; then you turn the second disc so the triangle falls through; and then the third disc, etc. until you make a group and you finish a stack. If you try and place a triangle on a square, it goes flying off and a little thermometer begins to fill, warning you of impending doom. Doom, I tell you!
Each level is timed. All you need to do is survive adding shapes into groups until the timer runs out. Which would be easy if the shapes didn't speed up or there weren't barriers over some of the holes so you not only had to turn them but time the landing...
Or when you reach the bottom and you have a stack it didn't reverse and head back UP the tiles making those left and right turns now right and left turns and my eyes are rolling around in my head because I've just lost about 15 tiles in one fell swoop.
The controls are simple as can be: The left bumper moves the tile counter-clockwise (not left! when it's going UP it's not left!) and the right bumper moves the tile clockwise. That's it. You'll have five shapes available, but never more than four to work with at a time, and never fewer than three.
As simple as it sounds, it can be maddening because well, it should be so easy! The kid-friendly art, silly story and simplistic control scheme make it great for the whole family. The versus mode allows you to *cough* let your kid beat you on the lower levels. Online, you can uhh...lay some smackdown...I'm sorry, it's so freaking cute. Nonetheless, it does take skill, serious skill, to play this game through the long haul. Never let the graphics fool you.
My children both play games so I often play them first, getting to know exactly how something may effect my sensitive and easily stimulated older child vs. my stoic and imperturbable younger.
I like games for games; for the pure enjoyment of them and believe that no game is wholly bad, though some are real stinkers.
I also have the dexterity of a camel in mittens so find playing FPSs difficult (and I also don't like the gore) and RTSs at times can stump me. I just can't seem to move quickly enough to keep up with them. Some of my favorite games are arcade games and I'll spend 3-5 years on the same 5-6 levels because I just never get any better. But, I have fun.






