Reflexive's The Great Tree oozes quirky inventiveness and is easily one of the more innovative games I've played. For starters, you play as a fairy flying around collecting pollen on your ponytail. This premise may already turn off many potential buyers, but this game is really suited for all ages. It is a concoction of arcade-style mouse maneuvering and a sense of adventure which can be played out in short intervals since each level only lasts about a minute or two. ('Hard' difficulty will play out longer.)

The learning curve is very shallow and you get thrown right into the thick of things from the get-go. You maneuver your fairy with your mouse to collect all the pollen floating around the screen, at the same time avoiding various insects that wander in random paths. If you bump into one, you drop all your pollen and have to recollect them, on top of losing health. Once your ponytail is full, you can either choose to deposit it or activate the Ancient Fire spell, which is an area of effect spell that kills all enemies within a certain radius. Once the deposit bar is full, the level is complete. Playing the game on 'hard' difficulty introduces a greater challenge, as the deposit bar gradually decays. You will now be racing against time in addition to the usual action.

Apart from the core gameplay just described, there are also bonuses to collect. Scattered throughout each level are beings called Swee, apparently your allies, encased within green round magical cages. To free them, you need to pluck a spell called Liberatus Spiral from right under the noses of one of the insects, the Globulocks. Every Swee freed earns you a bonus star which can be exchanged for character stat points once certain milestones are reached.

Four character stats are available for tweaking, namely agility, health, strength and magic. The game allows for stat tweaking in between every level, and allocated points can be redistributed. However, this aspect of the game feels a little shallow since you will eventually max out all your stats anyway if you manage to free all the Swees you encounter. Agility also purportedly increases your movement speed, but in practice the difference is not that noticeable by me, with your mouse sensitivity possibly being an even greater limiting factor.

Level background designs are beautifully drawn, with traps incorporated into them at certain levels. Some memorable ones include the sleeping mushroom whose favorite pastime involves swallowing fairies full if they wander too near, and the frog that had somehow evolved to only feed on fairies and ignore flying insects. Power-ups can also be obtained by killing enemies, either by Ancient Fire or otherwise. However, the range of power-ups feels limited, especially when the number of maps itself is somewhat inadequate since you end up playing 10 separate levels on each individual map. This borders on nitpicking on my part though, since overall the levels are colorful and cheerful enough to warrant an enjoyable experience.

There is also an elaborate back story which is told at the beginning of certain chapters through scrolling text and a female voice-over. Unfortunately, while interesting, the texts are way too long in my opinion, especially when there isn't an immediate correlation as to how the next few levels play out. To compound matters, the monotonous female narration has about as much charisma as a doorknob. (Unless that's how fairies are supposed to talk.) For the 99% of players out there who are going to skip through the narration, here's roughly how the story goes: You are a good fairy; bad dudes appear; you thwart bad dudes; you win and live happily… I think you get the drift.

Graphics:
Level backgrounds are well-designed, especially with the incorporation of innocuous- looking traps that you might not suspect the first time round. Character models are 2-D but well-rendered nonetheless, and in typical Reflexive tradition, spell effects are generally flamboyant and really spices up the overall gameplay.

Sound:
The accompanying soundtrack has a mystical, fairytale-like feel to it and complements the game ambience very well. The only downside is the forgettable voice narration at the beginning of each chapter.

Gameplay:
The most important aspect of such a game is arguably the responsiveness of your character to mouse movements, especially with so many traps and enemies to dodge. I'm pleased to report back that overall gameplay where maneuvering is concerned is very smooth and responsive.

Concept:
There's a lot of innovation in this game that should be lauded. Playing as a fairy, collecting pollen and killing insects are not things you'd find in your typical game. As you progress through the levels, you will also unlock special wings with unique attributes that really boost the potency of your character.

Value:
The Great Tree is a single-player game, with 2 difficulty levels to choose from. As mentioned, 10 maps are included and once you've played through them all, there really is little incentive to go back and replay the game. The only mitigating factor is that the higher of the 2 difficulty settings should engross you for a much longer time than the normal mode, with added excitement since you're effectively racing against the clock.

Overall:
The Great Tree provides a very enjoyable experience overall, one that can be lapped up in byte-sized intervals. Although it doesn't have the vast expansiveness of the Aquaria game world, it does offer up its own unique sceneries and environments. Even with the some of the gripes discussed in this review, I will still lean towards a 'Buy' for this game.