Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is both an action platformer and a match-three puzzler, and how this concept hangs together is more impressive than it first appears. The block matching on the DS’s bottom screen is almost too easy to manage much of the time and the fact you can’t speed up how quickly blocks appear feels like a failing, but as you fight your way through stages, it soon becomes clear the puzzle elements are a vital supplement for getting you out of jams and managing the surprising level of danger Henry starts to find himself in. The puzzle game side isn’t meant to be the challenge, it’s the way you manage your safety and resources in a way that has far more depth and peril than simply finding what you need in a level.
Henry Hatsworth himself is a veteran explorer and cut from the standard cloth of a classical British gentleman. Hearing of a special set of men’s wear that will allow someone to tap into the treasure-filled realm known as the Puzzle Dimension, Henry sets off for a new adventure and quickly finds the bowler cap that comprises the first piece of the Gentleman’s Suit. Now able to tap into the puzzle dimension a bit and use it to his advantage, Henry sets out to explore new and strange lands in search of the rest, but he’s not the only one looking to acquire the puzzle dimension’s power. Weasleby is a less chivalrous gentleman who employs a range of colorful characters to stop Hatsworth in boss battles that stand as some of the already well-crafted game’s creative highlights. The monstrous widow Lady D wielding her giant wedding cake’s groom cake topper like a machine-gun and the gorgeous opera singer Lance Banson calling in his adoring fans to heal him if you don’t match the music note blocks in time have some gameplay substance behind their over-the-top personalities and concepts, and the game certainly has a bit of fun with even its main characters. Every character speaks in text boxes backed by stringed together sound fragments similar to how it’s handled in Banjo-Kazooie, Henry’s voice made up a stuffy English mumblings while Weasleby’s almost sound like a string of self-satisfied sneers.
When the adventure begins and you’re first coming to grips with the relationship between playing as Henry and swapping control over to the puzzle screen, it can seem like the concept doesn’t have much teeth. When in the puzzle screen, the platforming section freezes, but there is a timer ticking down as you match blocks and lollygagging will eventually force you out. Matches extend your time and can even freeze that timer, but at first the main use for the tile matching is to avoid new nuisances. When Henry defeats an enemy on the top-screen, they’ll be sent down below and converted into a colored block. If the player doesn’t match two or more blocks of a similar color with the enemy block before the rising tile pile pushes up beyond the bounds of the bottom screen, that block will reappear in the level and start attacking you until you defeat it again. Periodic clean-up in the bottom screen is a necessity to avoid these pests, but other uses become clear for the tile-matching over time. Power-ups pop down into the puzzle dimension sometimes, the player able to recover health or earn extra lives by matching them. Early in the adventure the lives are abundant but definitely feel necessary down the line, a player needing to fully restart a level if they run out and some final world stages are brutal gauntlets that will test your platforming and battle skills on top of managing what the touch screen puzzles give you. You can also activate certain special effects with puzzle screen power-ups like the ability to freeze enemies in place for a short period or stun them with damaging electric shocks, a well-timed power-up able to help you overcome some of the tougher enemy arrangements that start to become more and more common the deeper into Henry’s quest you get.
The top screen’s action platforming is a suitable challenge enough on its own that could have carried a game without the block matching element. Henry Hatsworth finds the Gentleman’s Suit pieces help restore him to his youthful self, the now ginger-haired hero swapping his cane for a sword and proving far more capable than his older distinguished self in battle. However, if you take enough hits, Henry will be knocked back to his true age, the more elderly Hatsworth not only weaker but not able to pull off the same attacks as his younger self. Henry Hatsworth’s foes start to become more durable over the adventure and gradually it becomes key to learn how to effectively juggle them with your attacks, this ability at first just rewarded with more money from a foe but soon in crowded battles you’ll need to identify how long to keep a foe stunned by your strikes and when to disengage so you can deal with others. Many segments of the adventure will lock you in with waves of enemies where managing them properly is key to avoid being worn down and defeated, the player having to be surprisingly tactical to keep these fights from becoming messes of attacks you will struggle to avoid. This is actually where the puzzle screen comes in its most useful, as now you can turn the tides against your foes by utilizing the many forms of assistance it offers. Build up enough power in the bottom screen through matching monster blocks and Henry can regain his youth mid-fight, and even more helpful is the Tea Time power you can activate where you’ll be able to pilot an invincible mech with much more powerful abilities for as long as you can keep it fueled with meaningful matches.
Fighting a tough battle in the top screen, popping over to the puzzle to manufacture your own second wind, and then clearing away the enemies makes for an entertaining yet challenging flow once the game starts really pushing you to master its mechanics, and sure enough there are ways the enemies soon begin to mess with your bottom screen to make these battles even more layered. Some enemies turn into tough to match skull blocks, these only appearing after defeating certain foes so you need to carefully move them around down below until you can finally clear them out. Some foes become giant blocks or locked blocks that restrict how well you can manage the bottom screen, the player only able to move blocks horizontally so you might not always be able to make optimal or high value matches to help turn the tides. Some bosses and enemies have special effects on the blocks while on screen like the magicians who will speed up how quickly the blocks rise, the player not always needing to watch the bottom screen for developments but the game thankfully has many warnings and animations to draw your eye if something does need addressing down below.
The areas you find yourself in do seem fit to test just your platforming skills as well, the player often needing to find the way to safely clear tricky jumps with enemies in the way or unique mechanics at play. Hatsworth’s skills expand over the course of the adventure, the player starting to get wall jumps and new special weapons or ways to use them like a rifle and bomb (both of which can be powered up when used by making matches to increase their attack size). There are moments where precise wall jumps will get you to new treasures while the main action might have you delicately weaving your way through damaging environments or having to find ways to wipe out foes before they send you plummeting to your death, the player consistently engaged in the traditional adventuring even before the puzzle’s effects are factored into how it unfolds. Collecting treasure also ends up being incredibly helpful as you can spend it between levels on improvements to your health, power, and the outcomes of your block-matching work. Each new upgrade feels like a much appreciated bump in ability that can help mitigate the steadily climbing difficulty, so when you spot a treasure chest at the end of a more difficult jumping challenge or think you’ve found a side path to some extra booty, it’s easy to be tempted to take the risk. Some enjoyable music accompanies you as you press into new locations like a space pirate fleet or volcanic lair, and you can always count on there being variety in location-specific dangers and new enemy types, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure able to stay consistently creative in both halves of the action.
THE VERDICT: The effective blend of action and color matching play in Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is already impressive as the challenging battles are further enriched through the resource and hazard management in the puzzle segment, but the creative mix of mechanics goes even further. Making matches isn’t difficult, but making them intelligently is key to ensuring you have power-ups when they’re really needed, and even when the focus is more on the top screen during moments like the boss fights, you still need skillful play to survive against the imaginative attacks they’ll be dishing out. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure charms with its silly colorful world but tests your tactical planning and platforming ability to keep you consistently engaged despite its eventually taxing difficulty level.
And so, I give Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for Nintendo DS…
A GREAT rating. Besides starting a bit too easy and ending at being a bit too hard, the real leg-up Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure would need to be absolutely superb would be a better form of pressure on that puzzle-solving. Never did an enemy effectively escape the bottom screen for me until I wanted to see the effects for this review, and while I have found videos online of it happening to inattentive players, it does feel like some of the threat those bottom screen monster blocks pose could have been amplified to make for more pressing block-matching sections. Thankfully, there is still some tangible pressure when the block gimmicks from more dangerous foes and bosses become a factor, and it is already a marvelous means of managing elements that can prove vital to your success in the top screen adventures. Stringing together some smart matches allows you to recover from a rough patch and whip out things like Tea Time for a huge shift in fortune, the game encouraging you to be thoughtful in your block matching rather than just wiping away everything you can on the bottom screen. Carrying monsters around down there even becomes a valid strategy since they can help get you the energy needed later for things like restoring your youth, and as the game places more and more enemies in inconvenient spots, you come to treasure every lightning block you’re given. Treasure is expertly balanced to be somewhat abundant but the power-ups are appropriately priced so each purchase is weighty, the player needing to think about what can help them succeed and always treasuring the end-of-level chests that not only stand as a relief from the later long challenging levels but give you a boost to your funds for the after level purchases.
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is brimming with ideas for how to oppose you and the entertainment comes from not just managing your movement well but knowing when and how to utilize your puzzle screen’s benefits. It’s still easy to get a little frustrated when future levels can take so long to clear and the threat of a full level restart looms, but the enemy juggling being such a vital system also deepens the combat without overly complicating it. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure expects you to manage both the fights above and the color matching below but neither system is so demanding it feels too taxing. Both are properly separated by things like the action freezing while you move blocks around and the game makes no secret when things down below are becoming dire so you never lose track of it while exploring the level, but the relationship between both halves of this experience is still important and gives it a special zest that pushes it beyond just being an excellent platforming adventure.