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Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure for Nintendo DS is quite an odd gem that must be played to understand why the risk of merging platformer and puzzler genres into continous playthrough more or less paid off in spade. The premise of playing as an old chap unnaturally blazing through hordes of enemies with sword and puzzle is quite original and inspirational with charmingly simple plot and characters involved. Yes, the game is hard too, for better and worst, since I spent lot of time having lot of fun kicking asses and fuming angrily by getting my a** kicked. Not to mention that even with lot of details being very polished, there's lot of missed potentials that could have made the game better.

Yeah, I am showering praises and brewing criticisms at the same time, it is an odd game to enjoy and loath.

GRAPHIC

Charming. Beautiful. Inspirational. Memorable. There's lot of variety in the game that is very compelling to gaze upon and explore within. Each of area and world oozes art and realism, so much that they felt naturally and organically grown, built, and aged. Even Henry Hatsworth himself is wonderfully aged as an enjoyable old chap, in which he move and fight fluidly despite the heavy pixelated frame within himself. All of enemies and bosses shared the same treatement, which is a big plus since they're just as oddly realistic as Henry Hatsworth is. Oh yeah, giant robot rocks with exploding eye candy of weapons and barrages of fists biggrin

9.5/10

SOUND

Pleasantly simple. Perhaps, too simple for my liking. The enemy's noises and attacks are mixture of simple yelp, growls, and boom with Henry Hatsworth blipping out similar brand of yelps. What stand out in sound department are character's gibberish voices ala Banjo Kazooie fame. They're just as fitting and hilarious as I expected them to be, even if they can be loud sometime.

The soundtracks are also pleasantly simple, with few stand outs being the main menu theme, puzzle segement, Tea Time fanfare, Weasleby's boss tune, and few of level ambients. This could be design choice if the developers didn't want to overwhelm the players with epic soundtrack. In that sense, it is successful since the appealing gameplay come first with soundtrack being secondary. For those of you out there who really want an incredible standout, the boss theme of Lance Banson easily stole the show with Lance Banson himself singing his own alluring ballard while fighting against Henry Hatsworth atop the pirate ship and showing off his bod and flowing blond hairs to the adoring fans. EPIC.

Good mixture of sounds and soundtracks with few standouts. Could use more, maybe.

8.4/10

PLOT

Also simple, yet sometime bizarre. Henry Hatsworth, the old chap who happened to be number one member of Gentlemen Club and an avid explorer of ancient ruins (and do it well despite his old age O_o how did he not break his back???). He recently found an ancient Golden Bowler Hat that his young assistant, Cole, directed him after discovering it in his studies. Suddenly, things took a turn for worse (as predicted) when the Hat turned Henry 20 years younger into his explorer outfit and unwittedly broke the seal of Puzzle Realm and monsters are coming out in swarm, invading the world. Now that the rift between Platformer Realm and Puzzle Realm is spreading larger, Henry Hatsworth have to explore the world for extra pieces of Golden Suit and use their power to close the rift for good before the monsters could overwhelm the known world. To make matter for worse, Henry Hatsworth's arch nemesis Mr. Weasleby is also searching for the Golden Suit for his own evil deed, so Henry must find the pieces before Weasleby do and save the world.

The plot is simple and predictable with few of recognizable characters and bosses filling in the hole. What really make the game come alive is how lively and ridiculous each of characters are with each of their own stand out lines and appearances. Even each of the bosses separating from Weasleby are hilariously original. Also, the variety of areas and worlds are enjoyably appealing, yet they only act as bridge for long gameplay with bit of plot snugged in between. It worked well, even if it felt bit too simple. There's could be more of plot and character developments (especially for bosses) to tell inside and outside of main gameplay with bit more of characters and bosses involved. I feel that despite the well-designed cast the game have, the overall cast felt slightly lacking with Weasleby taking too much of spotlight as bumbling main villian. Even so, the twist right at the last level would sure to surprise and delight you, sealing the final boss as mind-buzzing interesting. Aaahhh if only we could see more of LadyD, Lance Banson, The Captain, and Cole...

8.8/10

GAMEPLAY

Now, the most difficult aspect of whole game... the gameplay. I noticed that almost everything are finely polished with noticeable flaws.

1 - Henry Hatsworth
this old chap can move with ease and fight tooth and nail and have tight control, although he have slow pacing, slow weapon recovery, and very simple combo. Against the horde of enemies, it can be frustrating to get Henry out of way before being hit by their attacks because of his slow weapon recovery when finishing his barrages of sword and gun. Also, sword combo is extremely simple to use that it difficult to take advantage of that against horde of enemies, in which I felt that he should have few more kind of combo. Even so, the control over Hatsworth overall is a very tight experience.

2 - Enemies
very nice variety in design, attack strategy, and animation. They felt like they belong in the game and offer decent challenges. Even after you defeat the enemies, they hilariously fall and tumble into Puzzle Stack where you have to make matches to eliminate them for good. Brilliant design that make them extremely enjoyable.

Despite many of enemies that I really enjoyed fighting against, there's very few of enemies that I felt are really cheap just by being there. The exploding mole, stack of 8 eyes, hailfire bombers, and bubble belcher are few of enemies that would guarantee to cause huge rage of frustration from your system. Not only that, they also can caused you to unwittedly fall into row of spikes or bottomless pit, causing lot of damages or ending your life instantly. On top of that, lot of cheap damages can result in loss of your Energy Level that reduce your life badly to brink of death with more damange being blown all over the screen, enveloping you into inevitable death. It can take strategy and patience, which I suspect the developers designed in first place, to eliminate the enemies with fewest damages possible. That is a daunting challenge in later levels. Because of that, I found more fun playing the first three worlds than I do in last two worlds.

The balance in enemies and damages must be fixed to ensure smoother experience and less frustration in later levels.

3 - Puzzle
The puzzle is perhaps one of most enjoyable aspect of the game with lot of enemies and items falling into the stack to increase intensity and pacing of the puzzle. In few certain circumstances, other stuffs can fall into the stack of puzzles, influencing it in good or bad ways possible, even during boss battles. My only gripe is that the puzzle rise up bit too slowly, even though its pacing is suppose to balance between platformer and puzzler segements. Where's the rise button found in Planet Puzzle League? It would have been might useful. I bet the developer opt it out to preserve difficulty.

4 - Bosses
a mixed bag of awesomeness, servicable, and unfairly difficult. First two bosses is a huge dose of epicness that almost had me believing that the game is for real a classic gem. LadyD and Lance Banson deliver a variety of unpredictable attack strategy that truly reflect their personalities and add lot of depth to gameplay. The Captain is a servicable and charming boss, though the attack strategy he and his nurse employed aren't up to standard that I found in previous two bosses. One bosses that took too much spotlight for his own good is Weasleby, Hatsworth's nemesis. His first few appearances are tolerable at best since he's just a silly foddler who wish to claim power. Afterward, his invitation started to worn out with his frequent boss appearance and hold two position as world end's bosses. How about less of Weasleby and more of other bosses? At least the twist about Weasleby at the final boss level is shockingly surprising and gave that last level a new fresh breath of air.

5 - Level Design
Mixture of great design and variety with old school platformer for better and worst. Even if the art direction and design is inspiration and enjoyable, it not up to the standard that I expected it to be. Many of levels lack realistic identity that can be found in Mario and Sonic game. The developers tried hard, I know, but I felt that there's more to explore and take advantage of level design to make it truly amazing experience. Take notes from many of finest platformers available, you might learn what make them tick.

That's all. See what I mean?

9/10

All in all, Henry Hatsworth is a fine game that have lot of brilliant ideas and its executions almost succeed with many small flaws being noticeable blemishes within layers of polishes. It not an easy adventure either, it take patient and skills to blaze through tough enemies and bosses. If you persist, you might find some charm in it. Despite the game being as it is, there's lot of potentials for the game to become truly magnifinance and bear mantle as one of absolute classics. As of now, it is not a classics, but it remain an enjoyable odd gaming gem that set a benchmark for how to successfully married platformer and puzzler genres.

Final Score: 8.9/10 or B+