Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is what you’d call a hybrid game. It combines the jumping/running/combat/dying of a platformer with the match three mechanic of what is more typically a casual game. Looking at the game box, I definitely focused more on the pictures from the match three portion and missed the implications that it also is a platformer. My bad.

The hero is Henry Hatsworth, an aged adventurer and member of the Pompous Adventurers’ Club. Henry’s particular rival is another stuffy gentleman named Weasleby. Henry discovers the legendary cursed golden bowler hat that seems to have the power to make him younger and allows him access to the puzzle world. His goal is to accumulate treasure, enjoy tea time and gather the missing pieces of the golden gentleman’s suit.

There is a lot going on in this game. The casual match three gamer (somewhat resembling me) may find it a little stressful. The gamer that feels casual games are too wimpy and made for the weak will probably be quite happy as the difficulty ramps up.

The first plus I noticed with Puzzling Adventure is that it has three save slots. If you want to share the game with friends or family, you have the ability to do so.

The entire game can be played using only the key controls. Some people find this a real plus. It tends to throw me off. When I’m playing a game on the Nintendo DS, I have this crazy expectation that it will actually use the touchscreen. There are some parts that can use the touchscreen, like the match three portion, but all of the platform parts and interminable conversations are handled with key controls.

The music sounds pretty adventurous, and the combat sound effects go nicely with the game. Unfortunately, I don’t usually have the sound turned on. I found at the very beginning of the game that Henry’s voice most reminds me of a British gentleman repeatedly clearing his throat making “hem,” “haw,” etc., noises. It drove me insane. And then, after exploring the menu options, I discovered there is no way to adjust the sound effects. My only sound controls are turning the DS volume up or down. I just leave the sound off at this point; otherwise I want to throw the game out the nearest window when the conversational bits come up.

Henry begins in the adventure area with the typical shooting or slashing of enemies, jumping from platform to platform and ducking or jumping to avoid other attacks. As he defeats enemies — or finds power-ups, healing or extra lives — those things drop into the bottom portion of the game, the puzzle world.

As you do the platformer part, the blocks of the match three part rise from below. To access the blocks, you defeat things in the adventure world, building up puzzle meter. The higher the meter, the longer you can spend in the puzzle world. You want to spend time in the puzzle world because you have to make matches with the monsters or treasures in order to earn them. If you forget about the monsters below whilst battling the creatures above and they reach the top of that puzzle screen, they pop back into adventure world and start attacking you — again.

Down in puzzle world, you’re filling another meter — your super meter. This meter holds ammo for your gun and the special power of the bowler hat. When you keep up that meter, Henry is young again, which means he has extra silver hearts for health. If you use up that meter, Henry is old again and back to his two (or less, as you get hurt) regular red hearts of health.

If you top up the super meter again while Henry is still young, you unlock a little game convention called “tea time.” You’ll see a graphic of Henry having tea at the club, and then you’ll discover you’ve temporarily unlocked the massive gold power suit for Henry to fight in. I was actually excited the first time I unlocked the suit for Henry just before a boss battle, until I realized I was going to lose just as spectacularly as I did without the suit. As with any game skill (and I don’t have the platformer skill), your mileage may vary.

Once you’ve finished the first level of the game, you find that your little sidekick Cole, back at the Pompous Adventurers’ Club, has ability power-ups to sell you for treasure. Weighing which power-ups to buy adds yet another layer of depth to the game.

I actually enjoy the match three part of Puzzling Adventure — at least for as long as I can play it. I found it much easier to hold the stylus in my hand during play and use that for the match three rather than try to inch pieces over one spot at a time using the key controls. Given how short these portions of the game can be — due to the ever-decreasing puzzle meter timer — I would have loved if you could unlock just this part of the game for free play. I guess, given how the special blocks are so inextricably woven with the platformer part, it probably wasn’t feasible.

For the folks that enjoy their platformers and don’t mind a little match three tossed in, you’ll probably get a kick out of Puzzling Adventure. For the casual gamer that was hoping for a slightly adventurous match three game, you may have bitten off more than you can chew. I freely admit that I’m biased in that I really don’t care for platformers at all. This game isn’t something on which I would choose to spend my gaming time, but you might find this a challenging new combination. To each his own.