August 18, 2008 - Reviewing puzzle games is never an easy thing to do. Most of them feature rather threadbare audio and video, sacrificing just about everything to work on the gameplay. While this makes for better games it usually leaves critics in an often confusing situation of having to grade them quite differently. Luckily the developers chose to go with a low key audio/video approach that makes great use of a minimalistic design to enhance the gameplay instead of ignoring it totally.

There is a story to Roogoo, a rather silly affair about the planet Roo being invaded by hostile alien teddy bears. Obviously the only way to stop them is to wrangle in piles of comets and thus you have the entire setup. Really it’s just about all you could need.

The only thing that really matters in a game like this is the gameplay. Puzzle games, good puzzle games anyways, seek to instill a certain state within its players. A state where you don’t think about what you’re doing, you just react. Only in this sort of mindset can you handle some of the more intense levels in puzzle type games. This is where Roogoo succeeds and far too many other puzzle games fail.

As one of a variety of shapes falls from the sky it will be your job to spin floating platforms. You will then try to guide it to the bottom platform without losing too many of them. So if a red circle falls then you will be spinning the platform to ensure that it falls through all of the red circles. Sometimes you will need to get a certain number of these shapes stacked before they will penetrate a platform. Other times butterflies will lift your shapes upwards forcing you to spin platforms in reverse to avoid losing too many.

As time goes on it gets even more frantic and you are trying desperately to not let them fall too much that the meter on the left side of the screen fills entirely because once it does you lose. This gets even more crazed in later levels when you’ve got pieces falling in sets of five or six and then weird manhole cover looking creatures blocking your path.

Since you only need to use three buttons to control the game it’s all rather simple and doesn’t require too much thinking. Left bumper spins the current platform left, right bumper spins it right and the A button drops it at an accelerated rate. This is the sort of simplicity that Tetris had and that some other games fail to grasp. It is this that makes the game so simple to just loose a few hours in it as you try to get past just one more stage.

While he audio is so minimalistic as to be missed entirely the visuals are quite aesthetically pleasing. They have something of a water paint look to them, almost like something you might expect to see on the refrigerator of some proud parent. It is a rather cutesy design and definitely not pushing the boundaries of what an XBLA title can do but it is never ugly. Heck even the bad guys are about as cute as they come.

Really though, most puzzle games wish they could bring out that “just one more stage” mentality in its players and fail. This is something that Roogoo succeeds in and does so quite heavily. If you have the patience to learn how to master this sort of game then you will definitely get your moneys worth out of this game. However if you frustrate easily or are just looking for some easy Achievement Points then this game might not be for you.

Agree or disagree? Have something you'd like to add? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Simply Login or Register to add a comment and have your say. Registration is free, and only takes a few moments.