Smart Gecko
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Puzzle Games.
(This game was received for curation with no promise of a review, positive or otherwise.)
Smart Gecko is essentially a simple variant of the “don’t cross your own path” puzzle sub-genre. It could have been a passable way to spend a little time, but for the fact that zero effort has been made to fix some pretty glaring issues.
It should have been simple: Move your gecko one space at a time in order to eat all the fireflies and finish the board. Yet there are multiple problems, least of all the lack of a tutorial. It seems like that would be unnecessary, but at least two of your losses will be figuring out that turning into a wall makes your gecko explode violently, as does walking into a pillar (in the game’s overhead view, the pillar looks like something you can walk over). There is no way to undo a bad move, which will happen more than you’d like due to the inexplicable lag after pressing a movement key. There is a timer that doesn’t seem to do anything, and no option to play without it. Finishing a level means you have to actually maneuver your gecko to the edge of the screen, and then press another key to move it off the screen. The problem with this (besides the obvious redundancy) is that you cannot tell where the actual correct path is. And since, as I’ve mentioned, there is no undo key, you’ll just have to start over.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Chip’s Challenge 2
I started playing the Windows version of Chip’s Challenge way back when I was five years old. It took a good three years to beat the game, but they were three very enjoyable years. Shortly afterward, around 1997 to 1998, I discovered a small online community dedicated to the game, which was buzzing about a potential sequel. Sadly, by the time its development was finished in 1999, the sequel never saw the light of day due to publishing problems. So that should give you an idea of just how much time fans have been waiting to see this game. In the meantime, the CC community grew and started developing its own official fan-made sequels to the original game in lieu of CC2, and CC developer Chuck Sommerville released a successor to his original called Chuck’s Challenge.
– Real player with 7943.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Puzzle Games.
It’s Chip’s Challenge 2, and I enjoyed it enough to play through the entirety all at once.
Took over 13 hours. Totally worth it.
Anyway, everything from the original returns here, as well as a huge pile of new elements that, though overwhelming at first, are definitely introduced at a reasonable pace. Some levels have time limits a bit on the short side for their puzzle (often these are bowling ball on rail puzzles) and there are quite a few more short time limit levels in the game: though these are more straightforward, where the time limit merely adds to the challenge rather than frustrates by running out of time right as you’re approaching the finish.
– Real player with 342.7 hrs in game