Game: LinkEm Bamboo

Developer: RetroDev  

It started innocently enough.  A livejournal community which I frequent had a link to an independent game design group's website, and I had some time to kill during lunch while sitting at my desk at work.  I'd recently grown a little tired at my endless games of Motherload and was looking for something to fill the void.  The first game on the list was a game called LinkEm Bamboo.  It looked a little cutesy for me, but I decided to give it a try.  Since then it's become a welcome favorite to my little stash of 'break the tedium' and 'entertain me during lunch break' mini games.  

What follows is a breakdown of some of the key elements of the game that I feel contribute to its ability to steal away my precious lunch hour minutes.

Visual Design:

The visuals in the game are rather simplistic in nature.   The lines are crisp, the colors vivid, and the overall aesthetic manages to be disgustingly cute without overdoing it.  By utilizing a cartoon style without making it overly childish, the artists have succeeded in making a game which is appealing to a variety of gamers.

The animations are simplistic as well and work to a remarkably good degree.  You see the panda-boy out of the corner of your eye while you're desperately attempting to line up the pieces of bamboo just right and get a flicker of panic each time he begins to look upset.  Likewise, when he expresses joy you are triggered into  fleeting moment of happiness before desperately searching for your next workable bamboo arrangement.  Also of note is the quick, but well polished head-turning animation on the panda-boy, an effect which is notoriously difficult to do well in traditional animation.  

Audio:

Let me first say that I'm not certain whether or not the folks behind the game created the audio themselves, or used a  set of prepackaged sound clips.  Either way, the audio used is quite effective.  I particularly enjoy the hearty crunching chomp noise that occurs when you align the bamboo into a workable arrangement and it pops out of the environment (presumably to be eaten by the voracious panda-boy).  The swish of the bamboo as it rotates in place is fitting and unobtrusive.  It's an interesting little sound that you don't mind hearing again and again.  The serene title screen audio lures the player into a false sense of security that quickly changes to a more upbeat, fast paced mixture that more readily represents the nature of the game.  Once you click Play and begin the game an even more upbeat tempo kicks in.  It's fast paced, energetic and even a little frantic.

Plot:

 It's not that kind of game.  There is no epic quest that you are trying to complete, no princess locked away in a castle for you to rescue.  I suppose you could say that in a way the game does have some semblance of a plot, but that's stretching it quite a bit.  What it does have is a quirky, well done concept that would only be complicated and confused by the addition of a fully fleshed out and executed plot line.  

Programming:

I will admit that programming is not my strong suit.  I have some vague idea of the process and work that goes into all of the necessary programming that goes into making a game, but I certainly couldn't explain the process in depth.  What is my strong suit, however, is testing and quality assurance.  While I have encountered one or two minor glitches while playing LinkEm Bamboo, they have been fairly minor and nothing I'd call catastrophic.  Even if one creates the most amazing, interesting and thought provoking game to hit the shelves, if it's full of bugs and high severity failures no one is going to want to play it.  (or at least not for long)  This game manages to avoid any of the more critical failures I've seen in many hastely done titles, which indicates that a decent amount of time and effort went into creating clean code.

Difficulty:

Surprisingly hard.  The one thing I really wish had been included in the game is a difficulty setting.  While the included demo gives the player some idea of how to play the game, it will take most players a round or two to get into the right mind-set to really play the game.  

When all is said and done, I recommend the game to anyone looking for an entertaining and casual game experience.  The gameplay may seem a little strange at first, but give it a round or two and see how easily you fall into the trap of 'just one more round'.  

You can download LinkEm Bamboo free of charge here:  http://retrodev.co.uk/RetroGames/RetroGames.html 

If you like the game, be sure to share the url with your friends and pass on the simply addictive fun.

Straight from the RetroDev website:

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition! And nobody would have expected us to follow up Dave's Day Out with a highly polished looking puzzle game, but what can you do.

Link-Em Bamboo is a frantic, cute, and addictive puzzle game that's impossible to put down. Link the bamboo pipes together to score big points, and appease the vicious panda boy. Bigger chains score more, but be careful not to get carried away. You're under a tight time limit!