A whimsical puzzler sleepwalks onto DSiWare.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressions/26365
Dreamwalker stars a sleeping man, fittingly named Walker, who sleepwalks in a space-scape called Dreamland. The game has a wonderfully whimsical feeling, and a unique and simple gameplay mechanic suited to casual play.
Players do not control Walker directly; instead, they rotate cloud platforms by touching them with the stylus. Walker continues to walk forward when he can, turning left at T-intersections and backtracking when reaching a dead end. Players must guide the sleepy man from a moon to a sun through increasingly maze-like levels. In a way, the game reminds me of Mario & Wario, a mouse-controlled Super Famicom game, where players too interacted with the environment through clicking, while a blinded Mario wandered to the goal.
Dreamwalker starts off slowly, introducing players to new level elements incrementally. Later levels feature platforms that rotate in concert when one of a matching color is touched, platforms that keep rotating until touched, rainclouds that disappear temporarily after being traversed, and teleporter pads. A small army of creatures is out to awaken Walker as well, including alarm clocks, "early birds" who are after worms, and "night mares", a clever term for dark horses that can rotate platforms themselves. The dreamer must avoid these at all costs.
Walker can collect sheep on his journeys, and collecting all of them makes "dreams," fall down. Knocking these items by rotating platforms racks up bonus points. Occasionally, a cow may show up. After reaching the cow, Walker is transported to a spaceship bonus stage where he must rescue cows while avoiding aliens. Aside from score, each stage keeps track of both the time spent and the number of moves (platform rotations), and players can earn awards for meeting various goals. There are 40 levels in total.
My biggest concern is that without a fast forward button (well, the game isn't called Dreamrunner), it can be somewhat frustrating waiting for Walker to get to the desired location. Other than that, Dreamwalker is an interesting and unique take on the puzzle genre, meshing mazes and action in a surreal environment, and promising hours of casual strategizing.
Dreamwalker arrives on the DSi Shop in North America on June 6 at a price of 500 Nintendo Points.
Topic: Dreamwalker Impressions (Read 1347 times)
