Great-Great-Grandguy Goes Grasshopping

"Great-Great-Grandguy Goes Grasshopping" was developed by Shoobinator using RPG Maker 2003 and is one of those projects that is probably going to be hard to write a review for that meets the site's minimum requirements. This is because "Great-Great-Grandguy Goes Grasshopping" only contains a mere six levels and is thus rather short. In fact, the most interesting thing about this project is that it was most likely derived by trying to find a way to make ice sliding puzzles more challenging. After all, your typical ice sliding puzzle largely boils down to finding the correct series of lines to move onto to reach your target destination. A task usually made more difficult by having large maps that make working out the correct route more difficult since you can't work your way backwards from the target destination to a point you can actually start at.

"Great-Great-Grandguy Goes Grasshopping" does away with both of those issues by making how the player moves depend on the terrain they are on when they move. As a result it's a bit more difficult to work out the solutions since some terrain causes the player to move like a knight on a chessboard or will cause the player to jump upon contact with it in the same direction if there starting point was a different kind of terrain. This adds layers to the puzzles and makes working backwards from the target destination more difficult. At the same time the six puzzles were presented with aren't that challenging in my opinion since I was able to beat the game in about thirty minutes. I've had to spend more time trying to crack a single Sudoku puzzle then it takes to beat this entire game.

At the same time I think the basic concept here could be used to build a puzzle that is fiendishly difficult. It would just require the introduction of a few more terrain types that cause the player to move in even more unique ways. That way the puzzles are even harder to figure out or brute-force your way through.

And thankfully the shift key resets your character to the starting point of a stage since certain maps can create points that are impossible to get out of. A good example of this is stage 02 where it's possible to get yourself locked into moves that make escaping the area your in impossible.



As far as sound and visuals go the game seems to rely entirely on stuff found in the RTP so the game isn't all that interesting on either of those fronts. In fact, the sound front is kind of annoying since the game just keeps playing the same song on an endless loop. On the bright side I suppose it fits with the relaxing nature of this puzzle game, but at the same time it would be nice if each stage had its own musical track. That way the music is less likely to get on your nerves since listening to the same track on an endless cycle can get annoying. And if your going to include the RTP in your download you might as well use a few more songs from it.

All and all, I'd say this is worth a quick look if your looking for a twist on ice sliding puzzles, but if your not a fan of movement puzzles then I'd suggest giving this game a pass. And if your in the mood for something a bit more traditional I'd suggest taking a look at "Cold Rest". While it does throw a few gimmick at the players like pick axes you can use to break ice blocks or thin ice you can only cross once. It's still a lot more traditional then a game where you slide on ooze like your knight in a game of chess.