Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure

“The nice thing about have two screens is that you can play two games at the same time” – This must have been the thought which inspired the creation of Henry Hatsworth for the DS

On the top screen there’s a side-scrolling platformer and on the bottom there’s a block matching puzzle game – each feed the other and, when you get the timing right, allow you to press on through the game. Get the timing wrong however and bad things happen!

So, the basics. Henry Hatsworth is an elderly adventurer of the moustache and top hat variety. His young, and noticeably cockney “guv’nor”, sidekick tells him about a fabulous golden suit which allowed its previous owner “The Gentleman” to rule the world. Henry, of course, decides to track down the suit and after discovering the first element – a nice bowler hat – realises that it has magical powers. Thus the quest begins. Hatsworth’s nemesis Weaselby is also on the trail and provides both interesting dialogue and the some of the Bosses for the levels.

The game mechanic is superficially quite simple, you run through the levels jumping shooting and slashing at the puzzle monsters – did I mention that there are monsters fro the puzzle realm roaming the lands? No, well there are and part of your mission is to send the blighters back there! But there are other things to keep your eye on too. So you run, shoot and slash your way through the stages to reach the end and the prize of treasure and, at the end of each level, a piece of the mystical Golden Suit.

On the lower screen of the DS the puzzle realm is shown. This is a slowly scrolling vertical grid of blocks which you can switch to and shuffle around to solve. Aligning three or more block of the same colour fills your super meter and you can make use of this power with enhancements to your shots, increased health and, when maxed out, an invincible suit of armour. It’s also important to get rid of the puzzle monster you’ve sent back there too, as these will scroll up the screen and eventually pop back into the real world to wreak their vengeance upon you!

As the game rolls on the beasties become more beastly, the platforms become more sensitive to when and how to roll through them and the timing required in your switches between real-world and puzzle realm more critical. It’s also important that you are able to deal with  the puzzle quickly, shuffling the blocks around and getting both the power-ups you need and the monsters banished becomes more and more important. The cause-and-effect relationship between the real world and puzzle realm, as depicted on the two DS screens, mean that as you progress through the game you have to be very aware of what’s going on.

As you go through the game you collect treasure of course. Each beastie you slay drops a treasure piece and the value of the pieces is defined by the multiplier in play which ticks up depending on how you sustain your attacks. Treasure is also, as I’ve mentioned above the prize at the end of each of the stages running through each level. But what to do with all of this treasure? Well of course your side-kick will happily exchange it in his shop for abilities and bonuses. I found myself playing through an entire level again to gather more treasure to pay for such an item as I was getting stuck – or rather dead – rather too often on the next section!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is a well envisioned and well executed piece of fun! I’ve been playing this sat on the train (I did actually nearly miss my stop once), at home, at lunchtime, pretty much everywhere I could. It’s addictive. The first time I listened through the dialogues I laughed out loud. The characterisations are completly in fitting with the faux-fifties adventure movie setting and really must be heard! It’s that level of detail which lives throughout the game, everything works well and fits with the motif. Hats off to Hatsworth!