by Chris Nycum

Created on: September 09, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2008

Archibald's Adventures by Rake in Grass is a 2D puzzle adventure that harkens back to the days of the arcade and console games of the early 90s. It is the kind of game that was ubiquitous 15 years ago but not so much today. As with all of these types of games there are some clever aspects to set it apart from the group.

The Plot

Not much of a storyline here. Your character is Archie, a skate-boarding kid that dares his friends to try out a big slide in a junkyard that is off-limits because it is next to the mansion of a crazy professor named Klumpfus. Undeterred our wayward hero hits the slide anyway and ends up falling into a sewer pipe and into a vast underground labyrinth that has been taken over by the professor's experiments. It is up to you to get to the shut off switch and rescue both yourself and Klumpfus.

The Game Play -

The game does a good job in the demo instructing you as to how your skateboarder can interact with the 2D levels and the various switches, crates, teleports and such that populate each of the 114 different levels. Controls are nothing more than the arrow keys (or the letters W, A, S, D for you lefthanders) and the space or enter key. Basically your goal is to get to the exit door of each level by utilizing both your skateboarding skills and various objects to open doors or create stairs on a 2D platform maze. In the demo clues and info are provided by various computer terminal locations usually placed before a challenging part of the level. These basically tell you how to get past the roadblock ahead. There are also places along the way to designate where you will start play from when killed. This make the levels go much faster since you then do not have to start over from the beginning of the level every time you are whacked.

Some of the more unique aspects that could be seen in the demo are when you gain the ability to blow moveable bubbles that can reach places where you cannot as well as lift and move some objects such as bombs and crates. Also when you reach the maintenance pod that allows you to magnetically attach to metal walls or ceilings and can smash certain crates and weak walls it makes for some unique play. Later on in the full feature game there appears to be more variations on the pods.

Overall the demo is not much of challenge and actually goes out of its way to be easy. I am sure the later levels are much more extensive and probably more difficult. Graphics are decent but necessarily very basic in design due to the 2D layout. The music is just a synthesized background beat which neither detracts from nor enhances the game.

The Bottom Line -

There is no time limit for demo play (which is something I wish more demos would do) but you only have access to 30 levels. I blew through these in about an hour or so. This can be entertaining if you enjoy old school 2D games like this one. At $14.95 for the full version it's not expensive and would provide several hours of enjoyment. I would rate this game a 3 out of 5.

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