‘Alien Jelly’ Review – Brain Wobbling Brilliance
Ever wonder what would happen if the world blew up, then aliens came to visit only to find themselves stranded in a series of ever more difficult 3D logic puzzles? Well wonder no more my friends, Alien Jelly is here to answer that precise question. As a side note, that’s an oddly specific thing to wonder….
As just said, Alien Jelly is a 3D logic puzzle game that takes place in the large vacuum of space where the Earth used to be. You play as up to 4 coloured blocks of…well, alien jelly. After flying to the co-ordinates where Earth once was, you and your cohort find yourselves conveniently stranded on one side of a 3D puzzle and are tasked with navigating the way back to your ship. It’s not that simple though; blocking your way is a plethora of spike traps, color-coded floor panels and dimension switching buttons, all of which make the seemingly short journey back ever longer.
On the surface Alien Jelly comes across as fairly simple, the game has a simple concept masked with a quirky yet deeply satisfying contextual exterior. Beneath this unassertive exterior lies some excellent level design, complex mechanics and mind-warping puzzles. The game starts out incredibly easy but soon starts to introduce new mechanics on a regular basis, some are easy to get to grips with – avoiding spiky death blocks – whilst some of the more complex mechanics require a certain level of finesse to understand.
Past the first 10 or so levels the game really begins to step up, introducing buttons which spin the whole world on its axis as well as the ability to stick your self to a surface – the latter is mainly required because of the former. What starts out as a fun and simple game quickly ascends into an intensely well designed, if not maddeningly difficult, level design. At times the difficulty curve can be sporadic, leaving you stuck on a level with a particularly harsh difficulty spike – nothing that can’t be solved with some real dedication and brain power though.
Covering the well designed mechanics is a cohesive and brilliant exterior, every aspect of the game feels well designed – especially the aesthetic touches. The game has a distinctly Worms 3D style about it which is in part thanks to the camera choices, but it manages to attain its own unique feel with its rich palette of colours that are well suited to the over-arching art style. The backdrops may feel a little lacklustre from time to time but the nuance of art design in the levels really makes up for this fact. Tying the whole style together is the cliché, but entirely appropriate, soundtrack. Alien Jelly does a brilliant job of creating a 1950′s mystery-science feel that works all too well. Even those less familiar with this trope won’t fail to be reminded of Ed Wood style campy science fiction films.
Once you’ve dispensed with the games 40 story levels, a feat which can take anywhere from 8-12 hours, there’s a well thought out level creator mode to extend your experience. This allows you to create your very own rage-inducing levels to share with the rest of the community. While it can take a little time to wrap your head round this mode it’s definitely worth investing some time in, especially if you have friends with the game and you feel like destroying your friendship with a complex puzzle.
Speaking of friends, the story-mode need not be played alone. Every level in the game supports up to 4 player co-operative play, meaning that Alien Jelly can easily become a fun party game or just something to sit back and shout at a TV screen with friends over.
Overall, Alien Jelly is fantastic, the game benefits from some supremely well executed level design which provides the same visceral reward that you get from games like Portal. It’s entirely possible to get stuck at points where the difficulty takes a particular spike but it’s never frustrating enough to make you walk away. Featuring 40 levels and the ability to create, publish and share your own worlds, Alien Jelly definitely has a wealth of content that could easily see you coming back to it for quite some time.
You can find out more information on Alien Jelly on the official website. Alien Jelly can be purchased for your Xbox 360 from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 240MSP/$3.
