Hampuzz

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer / Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Hampuzz is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer with Match-3 Puzzle elements released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players taking the role of an alien hamster whose spaceship has crashed on Earth. This leads to him somehow needing to complete various Puzzling situations to get to a flag in each level. Maybe he needs the flags to patch the spaceship, I guess.

The presentation here is good in some areas, not so great in others. On the one hand, this game’s colorful visuals are appealing, the character design is very cute, and the animation is good. On the other hand, the static backgrounds are tiresome and the childish music is grating. In any case, this isn’t a game that’s going to impress anyone with its presentation, but as long as you mute the volume, it looks decent enough.

The gameplay here is extremely simple, with players only able to walk, climb one block high, and push a block that’s not connected to any other blocks. That’s it. Yet despite the limited move set players have to work with, this still manages to be an engaging puzzle game thanks to some excellent puzzle design and new elements throughout the game that get the most out of the simple mechanics.

Hampuzz is far from anything original or revolutionary, and in many ways it is a limited game, but in the end its puzzle design is strong enough to make it a worthwhile game for fans of the Puzzle-Platformer genre, albeit not a standout one.

tl;dr – Hampuzz is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer game with Match-3 mechanics that has players trying to guide an alien hamster to the exit of each level. This game is mechanically extremely simple, but strong puzzle design makes it worth a look if you’re a fan of puzzle games.

Grade: C+

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