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Deep Under An Island Review

Rating:

Another Ludum Dare 17 entry, this time a colourful puzzle game based on snake, that's short but oh-so-sweet.

Full Review

It's far too short and there's no music. There. That's everything that's bad about Deep Under An Island. Everything else is great and you should go play it here.

It's mechanics are the similar to the old Snake game on mobile phones. You play a worm, and whenever you pick up a collectable, your tail grows in size. The difference here is that Deep Under An Island is grid based, so moving into a space with a collectable causes your tail to remain stationary, but your head moves a space. Movement is handled on a step-by-step basis, a bit like a board game.

There are some nice puzzles. Some reminded me of the Zelda games on the Gameboy colour, where you have to make it to the other side of a grid, only you have to go in every square, and you can't cross the path you've already drawn. The levels are all well designed, and a lot of the harder challenges are optional to prevent frustration.

You can press backspace at any time, and the last move you made through the grid will be cancelled. This essentially means you can rewind the game as far back as you like, and turns the game less into a video-gamey memory test every time you restart, but a lateral thinking puzzle to be solved at your own leisure.

I'm hoping this gets spun off and a full game gets made, because what little is here is exceptional.

Posted by Joe Gribbin on April 30, 2010 Comments (1)


Zhou Xuanming said at 2010-04-30 10:03:

I love the gameplay and its child-like graphics, but apples?! Why apples? Man, I hate apples. :P