Puddle - PS3

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Release Date: 1-31-2012
Critic Score (1-100): 79
Genre(s): Action, Side view, Fantasy, Puzzle, 2D scrolling, Direct control
Media Type(s): Physical

26.01.2012

**Puddle flows on to PlayStation(R)Network and Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH today released its clever Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade and PlayStation(R)Network puzzle title, Puddle.**

Available now from Xbox(R)LIVE Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points, or via the PlayStation(R)Store for 9,99 Euro, Puddle challenges the player to guide a number of liquid particles through a series of hazard-laden stages.

KONAMI has illustrated Puddles clever physics and absorbing gameplay with a special launch trailer. The one-minute promo shows the gameís many stages and hazards, while also showing the range of liquid the player controls ñ each with very different properties. Players guide their respective liquid by tilting the environment, balancing each fluid's unique properties with the environmental factors of gravity, friction, and each course's obstacles similarly, as players steer their flammable gas; blobs of water or radioactive fluid, they can only see a small section of the current level. Puddle for the PlayStation(R)Network also supports motion controls using the Playstation(R)Move or Sixaxis controller.

Puddle is a reworked version of the 2010 student game of the same name largely by the original team. Just like the initial title it is a physics-based game where the player indirectly controls a different type of liquid in each environment. Control is indirect as only the screen can be tilted left or right to change the liquid's flow. It needs to be guided to the end of the level with a certain amount of liquid left inside the puddle to complete the stage. Parts of the liquid can be lost through various hazards and the player needs to avert it with quick movement to make it flow safely. Compared to the original game, much of the initial visual style is still present but many more environments have been added or reworked. These include a Nursery set of levels in the woods and some take place inside a human body, a laboratory and a sewer. Liquid can be used to open up platforms with its mass.

Fire is the main enemy as it causes evaporation, but each environment has its own hazards such as venus flytraps that slow the liquid down or rotating blades that cut it in half. At times it is required to slow down to make sure the different drops stay together, as the ones that stay behind eventually disappear out of view, cannot catch up, and become lost permanently. Some levels have shorter, time-based challenges where a passage needs to be opened up by pushing against a lever. Not all levels are entirely based around liquid. In one the player controls a burning of pot of sodium chloride to activate a sprinkler system. In another a glass snowball needs to be guided around without causing it to break. In yet another a metal, triangular shape needs to be moved around. In some levels typical characteristics of liquids are used, such as yellow jodium chloride that turns black and burns through organic tissue or ammonium nitrate that is used as a fertilizer to make plants grow. Later levels are set in the stratosphere where gravity is different as the liquid floats upwards and needs to be guided through air control.

Lives are called "whines" and come in a limited number. The game contains secret levels that can be unlocked.

*** Data by MobyGames.com ***

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