by Alex Tours

Created on: June 05, 2008   Last Updated: August 09, 2010

The Garagons have invaded the Earth. Mr. Smoozles has been hit by a mind-altering weapon causing him to go berserk. He is on the rampage and is dangerous. You, a cute little bear named Ed, are the only one left who can try to cure him and save the planet!

Several of your friends have been captured. You quickly find where they are imprisoned and, once able to speak with them, they reveal helpful clues to assist you.

Go for it, Ed!

"Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutzo" is a multi-level game for pre-teenage children. In its cartoon-strip world you have to explore many different buildings and outside areas; identifying, collecting and learning how to use new objects and devices to help you solve the puzzle of how to overcome Mr Smoozles.

As you progress through the game you pick up more of the story of the Garagons's invasion: it's a fun, science-fiction based story featuring cute characters that will have widespread appeal.

The 60-minute trial version that I played demonstrates that it's an enjoyable game, even if it's not innovative - I was playing similar games 15 years ago! I would give it a rating of 3 out of 5.

It is a single-player game with three difficulty levels but is not suitable for unsupervised pre-reading age children as there is much necessary written information given during game-play. The easier levels provide more hints, cleverly done via cartoon-bubble graphics.

Even with the hints, it can be a frustrating game to play as can you spend ages looking for the one item that will allow you to progress in the plot. However, the game's target audience - children - do seem to have more patience than us adults for this sort of game so this counts as only half a criticism!

Game control is via the keypad: Ed's movement is controlled with cursor keys and a few other quickly learned single keystrokes control other aspects of the game.

The sound features are fairly basic: original electronic music acts as background to the game-play and there are a few special effects. Whizz! Ping! - that kind of thing. It's what you'd expect for this type of game: simple, but more than sufficient for the target audience.

Games in progress can be saved and reloaded at a later time - a useful feature as to progress through all the levels will take a few hours!

There is no graphic violence or obscenity: children can safely be left to play with this game and whilst progress may seem difficult at first they will soon pick up the idea of the game.

The full version costs $19.99 and at that price I wouldn't buy it for my children, without first evaluating other similar games that exist in abundance.

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