Here’s a concept which has all but died out over the past couple of decades: a side-scrolling platformer which manages to be both creative and challenging all at once. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably hard-pressed to recall the last time a truly engaging platforming title actually made your palms sweat. Well, fellow gamers, I’m pleased to report that for the first time in a long time, I’ve met my match: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure has surpassed nearly all of my expectations and has successfully consumed the better part of the last few days of my life. Equal parts platforming, puzzle, and beat-‘em-up, it’s an inventive, genre-bending romp through a colorful faux-British world which will surely have you smiling on a regular basis, even while you clench your teeth in response to its unforgiving difficulty.
Presentation worthy only of a gentleman
The story goes as follows: Legend has it that a magical golden suit was once worn by a man, known only as THE GENTLEMAN, who conquered the world. He wasn’t remarkably powerful, or uncommonly wise, or anything of the sort… no; he was just the best dressed. The tale then tells of a land of treasure to which only the golden suit can grant access—but although many have tried to wear it over the years, none of them could live up to its style (cue ancient Egyptian art of a pharaoh donning the fabled golden suit). Old man Henry Hatsworth, still a young adventurer at heart, is convinced that he should find this treasure; and with the help of his young assistant, Colin, he sets off in an effort to do so.
No sooner than has he decided to embark on said adventure, however, does he cross paths with his ever-scheming nemesis—none other than Leopold Charles Anthony Weasleby the Third. Leopold is equally determined to secure this mythical golden suit, though his methods are quite different: as a mechanical genius, his machines do his bidding. Hatsworth’s resolve never wavers, however, and thus he brushes off his cackling rival in pursuit of his lucrative prize.
From the very beginning, Hatsworth simply oozes personality. Its thoroughly tongue-in-cheek British atmosphere is frequently charming, and the dialogue between characters is entertaining to say the least (“Or you can use the stylus – whatever that means”). The game’s aesthetics are equally notable; the art is hand-drawn and beautifully animated, and the various environments are decorated vividly with myriad dynamic elements and parallax scrolling. Before long you’ll catch yourself humming along with the infectious tunes, which sometimes feature live instruments (and even vocals during one particular boss battle). The presentation as a whole is unmistakably polished—and like most truly great games, the synergy of the development team permeates every aspect of the experience.
Three genres are better than one
The basic gist of Hatsworth is a dual-screen puzzle/platformer/beat-‘em-up, where the platforming action takes place on the top screen and the puzzle occupies the lower (touch) screen at all times. As you make your way through the side-scrolling levels on the top screen, the puzzle continuously scrolls (slowly) upward on the bottom, occasionally populating with special power-up or health-replenishing blocks. You can switch between the action on the top or bottom screen at will by pressing the X button—and while you’re playing the puzzle, everything freezes in its tracks on the top screen.
In puzzle mode, you use the touch screen (or the D-pad and buttons) to match threesomes of same-colored blocks to eliminate them (you know, your standard Bejeweled– or Tetris Attack-style gameplay—yes, this does mean that you’ll probably opt to hold the stylus in your hand the entire time you play… but it really isn’t all that bad). As you defeat enemies in the real world, they’re transported in block form to the puzzle world below, where you must vanquish them once and for all using your block-matching skills. (If an enemy block reaches the top of the puzzle, that’s bad news, as it will reenter the platforming world and fly around in erratic patterns, wreaking havoc on our hero when it makes contact with him.) Each enemy you send to the puzzle world refills your Puzzle Meter a bit, which allows you to access the puzzle at will. Success on the puzzle screen also feeds a second meter—your Super Meter, which can be used to power your projectile weaponry and even execute Tea Time, which turns Hatsworth into a fearsome fighting robot.
While it’s somewhat difficult to explain in writing, it’s a simple enough concept, and it doesn’t take long to grasp the feel of the game. Switching between screens quickly becomes second-nature, and it doesn’t happen so often that it impedes the progression of the action (after all, you technically hardly ever have to switch screens until you start sending more enemies down). The worlds at first seem rather straightforward, but as you progress through the 25 main levels and are introduced to increasingly complex mechanics, things quickly heat up. It’s soon obvious that the game has no intention of letting you walk right through it, sporting some truly evil platforming/action elements in its later stages spliced with comparably twisted puzzle challenges.
Hatsworth’s platforming abilities, meanwhile, consist of a healthy range of typical action/adventure maneuvers (such as jumping, slashing a sword, and firing projectiles), and they’re expanded as you advance through the game. In fact, each article of the golden suit introduces a new technique specific to it; for instance, the golden trousers allow you to jump up walls, and the golden pipe grants you the power to breathe underwater. Your projectile arsenal consists of a few different types of weapons—a rifle, bombs, and a boomerang—all of which can be powered up once fired by quickly switching to the puzzle and pulling off some quick matches. The relationship between the puzzle and the platforming world doesn’t stop there, either. By eliminating power-up blocks on the bottom screen, you can send beneficial effects, such as freezing or damaging all enemies on screen, to the platforming world. It’s also possible to refill your hits by collecting heart blocks. If you sustain a few hits of damage, you’ll find that Young Hatsworth (made possible by the magical power of the golden suit) reverts to Old Hatsworth, where his combat powers are somewhat diminished. By pulling off a number of impressive matches in the puzzle and filling your Super Meter, however, you can reverse this metamorphosis yet again.
That’s not all, folks
And that’s really just the beginning. Each level introduces new enemies, platforming ideas, and puzzle elements. Before long, you’ll be wrestling with giant enemy blocks, stubborn blocks which require multiple hits, blocks which speed the rate at which the puzzle rises, and much later, particularly evil blocks which can spawn other enemy blocks around them. Some platforms only appear after you’ve matched blocks in the puzzle world while their outlines are on-screen at the top. All of this is in addition to numerous imaginative ways by which bosses and other elements of the platforming realm can influence the puzzle—it’s really too much to cover here.
But let’s talk about the boss fights anyway. They’re epic, memorable, and creative, and nearly all of them leverage the dual-screen platforming/puzzle hybrid design in clever ways. One boss battle (small spoilers here if you haven’t watched any videos of the game) pits you against a self-important pretty boy opera singer whose vanity as a ladies’ man is his greatest strength (and weakness). During the entire battle, he can be heard singing a tune in Latin which actually just features a bunch of music-related jargon, such as “vibrato, fortissimo, staccato.” His powers consist of raining deadly roses from the sky and calling forth a giant anchor which pulls the puzzle board on the bottom screen upward at an accelerated pace (you can defeat the anchor by attacking its chain on the top screen). Later boss battles are even nastier and more creative than this one… it’s all very amusing and lots of fun.
In addition to that, there are ten secret levels in the game as well. If you want to find all of them, you’ll have to backtrack through some previous areas with newly-acquired powers to search for them (and let me tell you—these secret levels are downright punishingly tough… like throw-your-DS-against-the-wall-repeatedly tough). Doing so might almost seem necessary, however, seeing as sometimes the reward is a significant enhancement of your abilities—and the later levels in the game are also extremely difficult, so any available help is of benefit. The final world specifically consists of some of the hardest 2-D platforming/action seen in years on any system. It’s obvious that the developers had to have been huge Castlevania and Mega Man fans, as we see a downright Satanic clock tower level in World 5, complete with disappearing blocks.
As brutal as it is British
Speaking of difficult, the game’s challenge actually presents an issue at times… and not so much because it’s hard, but instead because of why it’s hard. The later levels feature more than their share of tricky platforming scenarios to be certain, but beyond that, the high concentration of enemies can quickly become overwhelming. Some of the later baddies include terrible ballerinas that flip across the screen slashing their claws repeatedly, giant axe-wielding beasts, and hammer-swinging ogres who can freeze and damage our hero simply by hitting the ground… and that’s not even to mention the terrible sludge creature who loves to crush dreams at the end of one particular level in World 5. There’s also a high incidence of projectiles flying around the screen at any given time throughout the last two worlds in the game, making progress even tougher. Henry takes a nasty backward tumble when he’s hit, creating plenty of opportunity for him to fall to his death from the countless tiny platforms peppering Worlds 4 and 5.
Then there’s the arena battles (every level features at least one of them), where droves of enemies pour onto the screen and team up on Henry, Viewtiful Joe style—this gets old, fast. And there just aren’t very many checkpoints distributed throughout, so replaying a particularly trying or lengthy segment of a level can quickly grow tiring. While the game’s variety is something worth praising in most areas, it’s true that the assortment of henchmen can grow rather bland as well; there’s a massive number of every type of enemy in the game, and a good number of later enemies are merely palette-swapped versions of their earlier predecessors.
In summation, in the later stages, Hatsworth can prove quite tedious. Be forewarned if you’re averse to rock-solid persistence and prone to quitting: this game will defeat you and leave you frustrated. Just when you think you’re nearing the end of the level and things couldn’t possibly get any tougher, Hatsworth stomps on your dreams and smears them under its shoe while staring you right in the face. But if you’ve got that spark of determination in you, you’ll appreciate what’s here. Stick with it, and Hatsworth will entertain until the very (oh-so-gratifying) end, where you’ll find that challenging games can indeed be conquered, and that this one’s worth the time.