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Archibald's Adventures

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Developer: Rake In Grass Publisher: Rake In Grass Genre: Adventure > Platform Released: Aug 31, 2008 Players: 1 Website

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Michael Scarpelli: 9

For my money, it's hard to find a game more playable than a simple, side-scrolling, puzzle platformer and Archibald's Adventures is that to a tee. The game follows the adventures of skateboarding kid Archibald as he tries to escape the maze of dangers in a science lab filled with creatures and traps. The levels are short and sweet, the graphics are cartoon-y and clear and the challenges fit in wonderfully with the paradigm of a young hero attached to a skateboard. The puzzles are all timing and creative thinking and can really be taken on by anyone of any skill level. Also, since levels can tackled in any order (you have large chunks available at a time), you can jump around if you get stuck. I really enjoyed this one.

Pany Haritatos: 8

Thank you, Rake in the Grass. You really saved my bacon this month. Archibald was the 5th game in my list and the rest had really let me down. This wonderful platformer puzzle hybrid is simply excellent. The audio is top notch, the graphics are superb, and the puzzles are challenging, interesting and not the least bit frustrating. It introduces a few basic mechanics, and then combines them to create some really interesting and unique puzzles. This is a great game with excellent all-round execution. It's awesome, go and play it now!

Coby Utter: 8

Archibald's Adventures is a puzzle-heavy platformer where you must help the skateboard-riding Archibald escape from the basement (more like a dungeon) of a mad scientist's lair. Of course, the basement of a mad scientist's lair is filled with perilous traps, pools of acid, and yes, weird, mutant creatures. Archibald isn't the muscle-bound hero type, so instead you must use your cunning to avoid these dangers.

To solve the puzzles in the basement, you'll have to flip switches, use teleporters, bizarre science potions, and a variety of odd items. The levels are bite-sized and numerous. Fortunately, there is a lot of variety in the game, and the presentation is very well done. The pixel art is always consistent, but the sounds and music leave something to be desired. Overall, Archibald's Adventures has a quirky premise, solid mechanics, and enough entertainment packed in for hours of fun.

Russ Carroll: 8

If you enjoyed Professor Fizzwizzle I'd recommend checking out Archibald. This game, like that one, is built around plat-forming puzzles that require you to carefully consider your surroundings and formulate a plan of how to get from point 'a' to point 'b.'

The puzzles offer a lot of variety as they are broken up over several different subsets where Archibald uses things like a sticky ball and a ship to keep things interesting. My only complaint was that as you moved on to the harder puzzles, the save points were often too far apart, requiring you to flawlessly execute large sections of a challenging level just to get to the amazingly difficult part that was trying your patience. It's a good game that makes you think and has a nice graphic style (I loved the skateboard animations), and being able to skip levels by selecting from the different subsets made it all the more fun.