Puzzle

Run Kiwi Run

HIGH When you get going in a level.

LOW Fighting through the massive difficulty spike in the last third of the game.

WTF Why isn't the lovely storybook art part of the levels?

More Sunlight!

HIGH Assembling an impenetrable double row of zombie-shredding Gatling Peas.

LOW Seeing a Balloon Zombie overhead and realizing I lack a countermeasure.

WTF Where did that final boss come from?

Game Description: Get ready to soil your plants… with multiplayer action! A mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home. Defend yourself with an arsenal of home-guardin’ plants to mulchify zombies before they reach your front door. Enjoy all the fun-dead action of the original hit game, plus lively new features. Get twice the zombie-zapping action with 2-player Versus and Co-op modes. Upgrade and decorate your house in the interactive leaderboard, and check out your friends’ houses, too. Plants vs. Zombies for XBLA is loaded with seven game modes, new rabble-rousing features, and unlimited replayable action… so the fun never dies!

Not Quite Cracking

HIGH An extremely cute main character.

LOW The controls and central mechanic never come together.

WTF The colors make it difficult to see except under optimal conditions.

Game Description: Ivy the Kiwi? is an action/puzzle game created by Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, that stars a baby bird as she navigates through a series of 2-D side-view landscapes. Ivy runs back and forth independent of the player and can be guided by the use of vines, which are drawn and controlled using the DS stylus or Wii Remote. The player can use these vines to herd Ivy forward or lift her up stairs, carry her over walls and past spikes or other dangers. Multiple vines can be created at a time and they can be pulled and stretched like a slingshot to propel Ivy skyward to launch her as a projectile to drill through barriers and enemies as the player helps guide her home through 100 challenging stages.

 

What you Don't Know Will Kill you... Twice

HIGH Every moment a spider is on the screen.

LOW A puzzle near the end that relies on a blind jump.

WTF The danger-free puzzles feel like they belong in another game.

Block like a Man

HIGH You gotta love the "click" that happens when dozens of minutes of frustration give way to a natural, logical conclusion.

LOW Please play me a different song on this next puzzle!

WTF My insurance provider doesn’t see Picross-related carpal tunnel syndrome as a viable reason for treatment.

Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night rocks.

No, seriously, it does.

Lost (and Found) in Shadows

HIGH Seeing the game in motion and realizing it's not a cutscene.

LOW The post-zipline area at the end is the game's only "cheap" puzzle.

WTF With that ending...

Unlike many gamers with disabilities, there aren't many barriers in games that make them completely inaccessible to me. Sure, there are games I don't like and usually avoid (first-person shooters: I navigate much better in the third-person than the first), and games that mesh with my pattern of skills (the grind-heavy role-playing game [RPG]), but I can count on one hand games that are unplayable because they force me to do something I'm incapable of.