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Rescue Razzle

Score: 75%
ESRB: Not Rated
Publisher: Sunstorm Interactive
Developer: Sunstorm Interactive
Media: Download/1
Players: 1
Genre: Puzzle

Graphics & Sound:

Rescue Razzle is an amusing physics-based puzzle game that will offer quite a nice distraction, and at $0.99, the fact that it only offers a couple hours of enjoyment is perfectly fine.

The visual design of Rescue Razzle is simple enough. Razzle is a little rat in a cage stacked on top of simple wooden crates in various patterns. The only other aspect to the game's graphics are the few backgrounds where the game places Razzle's precariously balanced pile. These settings include a flooded warehouse, a garage, a library and a couple of other locations. There isn't really thing special about these backgrounds; they pretty much give the eye a little something extra to look at while trying to figure out the exact order to remove creates. They do at least give you excuses for why Razzle's cage can't hit the ground. This is typically because of water or rat traps along the lowest level of the screen.

The game's audio is actually quite nice (though it can be turned off so you can listen to your own music, of course). The background music has a nice pronounced rhythm that seems to fit well with the sounds of breaking crates and Razzle's squeaks (which occur every time he hits something).


Gameplay:

Rescue Razzle has a simple concept, simply get rid of all of the normal wooden crates (as opposed to the ones you can't break that have metal corners), and make sure Razzle isn't on the ground, off the screen or otherwise unduly injured in the process. As you tap on crates, they crumble away and the physics of the game lets the pieces fall where they may, literally. The trick is to figure out the right order to remove the crates so that our furry friend will eventually end up on one of the unbreakable crates on the bottom level. The level ends when either all of the crates are destroyed or Razzle has been hurt.

There were quite a few times when the physics of the game didn't quite feel right as fallen crates slid more than I expected or pushed other crates in unusual ways, but it doesn't take long to get used to this slightly off feeling and get a good handle on how the game feels. Rescue Razzle is, as you would expect, designed to be picked up, played for a few minutes and then put back down. The only thing to remember before leaving the app is to hit the Menu button on the screen because if you don't, your progress won't be saved -- an issue that became pretty frustrating the next time I played the game and found I had to replay the last couple of levels.


Difficulty:

Rescue Razzle has a nice, solid difficulty progression. Early levels simply have you dropping the caged character straight down onto the safe crate, and then the game starts introducing slightly more complex patterns that require you to do some serious thinking. There were several levels that would leave me stumped for a few gaming sessions before I finally found the right combination of crates to get the job done, and these times, it usually felt more like luck than skill or logic that got me past them. What is nice is the very predictable nature of the game. When you remove crates in a particular order, they will fall pretty much the same way every time. This means that in those levels that might have you stumped, determining a systematic way to eliminate the wrong ways to get Razzle down is possible. The last few levels of Rescue Razzle are most definitely the hardest and the last one, 40, kept me at bay for a couple of days before I was finally able to perform the exact sequence necessary. This one was particularly hard because it actually involved breaking a couple of crates before Razzle and his cage came to a complete stop, something only necessary in a few puzzles.

Game Mechanics:

Rescue Razzle does a great job of taking it's core mechanic (heck, its only mechanic) and sticking to it. There are no extra bells and whistles to try and make the game appear to be more than what it is: a simple, but fun and addictive, puzzle game based around gravity and collapsing crates. As I mentioned above, there are times when the physics of the game (most notably the slippery friction) doesn't quite feel right, but since only the first few levels will be completed in only one try, you will get used to how the crates fall in a particular level pretty well before you are able to get Razzle safely off of his pile.

While I do wish there were more puzzles in Rescue Razzle, it did keep me entertained for a good week or so (with five to 10 minutes of gameplay in a session) and since the cost is less than a dollar, it's not bad at all. If you are the type who enjoys logic and physics-based puzzles and find that you only have time for short stints of casual-gaming in your daily routine, then Rescue Razzle isn't a bad app to add to your collection.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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