The fate of the world is at stake shouts the genius scientist and inventor, Doctor Altus, to our titular hero. Well, not so much ‘shouts’ as conveys through comics-style chat bubbles at the introduction of Bret Airborne. It’s a promising start to this steampunkish tale, as the hero must quickly chase and thwart the nefarious villain. Over the course of the journey, our hero boards a hot air balloon, combats a series of minions, and then takes on the big, bad boss himself. My first impression was that this was going to be an entertaining homage to the comic strips or cinema matinees of the 1930s and 40s (think The Rocketeer). Unfortunately that’s about as far as the story goes until the quick wrap-up at the end. This was the sole failing of Bret Airborne. It had a promising opening, clichéd though it might be, but did nothing to further develop the characters or drive the plot onward. Who is Bret? Who are these nameless, faceless enemies helping out the villain? Why is everyone in tricked-out hot air balloons? There’s no point in putting window dressing on this type of game if it’s not going to be fleshed out a bit more.

With the negatives out of the way early, I can talk about the great gameplay. Yes, it’s essentially a match-3 game but with some interesting twists on the rules. Each battle is a turn-based duel between the player and the opponent, both of whom share the same board. Each combatant can make their 3-in-a-row matches of symbols on their own half of the board, though the matches can be sitting partly on the other player’s side. In fact, doing so increases a particular stat used by some acquired powers, but more on that later. The point of each battle is to knock the enemy’s armor down to zero before they can do the same to the player. In between battles, the player directs their balloon from waypoint to waypoint encountering more enemies, entering stores, and heading further and further east towards the game’s end.

Steampunk air balloon fights are played out via turn-based match-3 combat.

During combat, the symbols found on the board can be combined to net three different kinds of collectible resources, cannonballs for immediately attacking the other player, tools for repairing the ship’s armor, harmful lightning (avoid!), and so on. Succeeding at making a row or column of four or more of the same symbol will not only earn the player another turn, but it also moves the central bar one column further into opponent territory. Moving that divider has the potential to open up enough additional territory for the player to either gain some previously inaccessible resource or to thwart whatever work the opponent might’ve been in the process of. For instance, the player can hit a four-symbol match to move the bar and use a set of cannonballs on the enemy’s side before they can. The bar resets to the standard position when the player’s turn is finally over. It might not sound like much, but this one rule alone shakes up the match-3 formula in a really fun and strategical way.

Much like Puzzle Quest, there are passive abilities and powers available to the player. In Bret Airborne, these can be purchased using gold earned through battle and exploration. The main campaign is divided into ten zones, and most of the zones have a location where purchases can be made. The passive abilities include stat boosts like increased armor, a chance to deflect enemy shots, and extra gains when matching resources. The powers are even more varied and generally include different types of direct attacks, the ability to screw over the opponent’s side of the board, or affecting the opponent’s ability to use their powers. All powers use the core resources collected by the player, so it’s important to play a well-rounded game.

Augmentations (passive abilities) and powers can be purchased to upgrade your ship between battles.

The final twist is that every power has a boost if the player has reached requirements in two other statistical categories: movement and piracy. Maneuver points are earned when the player can combine four or more symbols. Piracy points are earned when making a match that uses at least one symbol on the opponent’s side. The boost might make the attack more potent, cause timed powers to occur more quickly, or make debuffs last longer. There’s a strategy involved in deciding whether to burn powers early to get a jump on the opponent, or whether to focus on gaining maneuver and piracy points and going on the offensive later.

Bret Airborne is more than just about the main campaign, as a few additional modes have found their way into the game. The most interesting of these is the Gauntlet. It’s a series of 12 matches against increasingly difficult opponents. Before the round begins, the player gets a look at the opponent’s set of abilities and powers in order to gauge what he or she will be going up against. The player starts out the mode with basically nothing, but earns an additional power after defeating each opponent. It’s a solid challenge and easily makes this the pick of the litter in terms of bonus modes. The other modes include setting up a customized duel, 2-player local multiplayer, and a tower challenge. The tower challenge is based off of a mini-game found throughout the main campaign where the player races against the clock to collect a requisite amount of different materials for constructing a defensive tower. In this particular mode, the clock is removed and the player is granted 200 moves to complete as many towers as possible. Most of the modes probably won’t get more than a couple of plays, but they do add some incentive to stick with the game once the campaign is completed within a few hours.That time

It’s frustrating to play a game like Bret Airborne, but not because it’s bad. On the contrary, it’s quite good. The gameplay is familiar, but it has some unique rules that will make it appealing to both casual players and strategy masters. The problem is that I can easily see what it would take to give it that extra coat of polish to make it shine. While this is just the first entry in Bret Airborne’s adventures, it’s my hope that we’ll see the balloon-riding hero in a sequel that rises to even greater heights.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

Bret Airborne is available for PC and Mac from the Machine 22 website along with demos for each platform.

This review was conducted using a copy of the PC version provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Pushcat is a quirky puzzle game by the UK-based indie development company Zut for the PC platform.  You play the titular feline, negotiating obstacles and pushing matching colored gems into sequences of three to turn them into coins.   Collect a certain number of coins and you can exit the level via a cat flap unlocking more levels.  Collect a higher amount of coins to earn a star, collect enough stars and you unlock the next world.  It’s basically a Boulder Dash /Bejeweled mashup that works surprisingly well.

The game defies the prevailing design simplicity of the many puzzlers out there,  inviting you to revel in its chaotically busy (and sometimes sublime) level design, offering towering cascades of multicolored gems.  That is not to say there is no focus or structure to the levels, but their size often makes too much forward thinking impossible.  There is also a sprinkling of more concise, and often rather clever, puzzles to help break up the repetitive play. Along with “boss” type levels at the end of each world, these variations make for a consistent and ever-changing challenge.

Gems and rocks constantly rain down in this stage.

The introductory world highlights the importance of applying a little forethought to your actions, as blindly rushing in can be a sure fire way to feline doom.  Through clever play you can stack the odds strongly in your favor and it’s in the devising of these strategies, as much as the chaotic risk taking, that makes the game such fun to play.    The levels all have a descriptive and gently amusing name, helping to add further character to them.  Each level is subtly different every time you play. While based around a strong design template, the blocks change position slightly and the gem colors vary, making replays that much more interesting.

The mix of Boulder Dash and Bejeweled may appear slightly odd at first, with seemingly incompatible play mechanics. But by changing and adapting some of the fundamental rules of each (i.e falling rocks won’t kill you, but gravity will prevent you pushing gems up) it really makes the mix work.  Each additional world furthers the puzzle dynamic,  introducing bomb blocks, breakable ice blocks, rainbow blocks, multiplying slime and troublesome ghosts.  All of these new additions are well introduced via a couple of introductory stages and provide increasingly refreshing challenges.

Purple slime blocks spread quickly, eating rocks and coins.  Matching rainbow blocks explode into coins.

The sound effects in the game are fine,  I found the music pleasant at first but its loops quickly got grating – it changes with each world but I played with it turned off.  However, after I threw on some of my own music I was soon in a zen state of concentration.  The pixel art graphics are lovely and, whilst I wish there were a few more HUD elements to display the number of rocks and gems left, there is precious little to complain about.  I did miss the change world option though (its at the bottom of the screen in the level select stages), as I’d more instinctively moved the level select highlighter to the left, trying to get back to previous worlds in order to back pedal and pick up some easier stars.  However, I only noticed it after I completed the game.

Overall Pushcat is, as is much indie treasure, a charmingly-hewn, multifaceted pleasure.  I’ve not had my Boulder Dash fix for many years and this was a pleasant experience, one, even on my completion that I have returned to.  I can’t be much fairer than that.

You can play the demo or buy the game, directly from Zut, for 5 UK pounds, 6 Euros or 8 Dollars here.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This games was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

You can find out more info or pre-order the game now by checking out the Rune Masters page.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.