Inspirational. In all areas of game play.
Usually I wait until I've beaten all areas of a game before reviewing, but extreme defeated me, You'd need to spend about 5 hours practice at it or more and be very experienced at puzzle games to win. You think like me in terms of difficulty: there's something for all levels of gamer here. Its a steep learning curve: you beat easy to get enough skill to survive on intermediate, complete intermediate and you'll be able to struggle through on hard... and thats when you've learned how to play. For masters, extreme will push not only your skill, but the games very mechanics to the limit. I played this game for 2 and a half hours in total and still can't get past the second level on extreme. This is how a game difficulty system should be, a steep learning curve that makes you feel you're making progress keeps you absorbed, though extreme is too hard, I doubt anyone will get to see the ending.
The story line is a bit ditzy, but works, its got a cute hero, oddball characters, a few jokes and humourous moments and a menacing villain that creates all the contrasts and complexity of storytelling to make a great tale, and there's symbolism in spades. The slightly offbeat storyline and characters remind me of Ristar in terms of style. The music's good as well, it goes with the levels, sets the mood... generally suits the atmosphere.
The game style is amazing, an original puzzle/action mix that's quite unique to this game. Its not a completely new concept, but the addition of dangers, the need to create strategies to catch all the animals in time, plus the zany action needed to catch them or avoid attacks, is absorbing, I didn't get bored until extreme hit me like a spade, its just too hard for me.
The graphics and drawing aren't picasso, flash rarely is, but its colourful, bright and cheerful, adding to the ditzy nature of the game and making it more atmospheric and fun, certainly a grade above many artists drawing skills.
It comes together to make an original game with an absorbing, cute storyline that is challenging and enjoyable at the same time, making this an almost perfect game, with a cheerful atmosphere that truly sets the mood. A Halo-like replayability (In flash terms)adds to this, and even the mechanics are interesting, I'll recommend this to the action and puzzle game collections. Well done.
To the deserving player
The animals
Basic tips:
1: Collect the animals in order in which they'll hit the ground. Don't go after an animal if you'll have time to get it later and others are hitting the ground like meteors.
2: Orbs cause huge damage. If its saving or avoiding, let the animal die, its cold, but you can't save the world if you're dead.
3: Experiment with the mouse. You can move surprisingly quickly if you throw the cursor to one side of the map.
Advanced tips.
1:Make a strategy for catching each wave. An idea of how you're going to go about catching a wave can avoid a real mess.
2: Learn to use the jump. Its the only way of getting all the animals in time in the harder modes. However, once the animals get near the ground, run, don't jump, the time taken to fall on a low animal could spell the end of that animal.
3: You can jump low orbs to get to animals the other side. Just be careful not to land on the orb.
The fight.
The demon is very resilient. It takes about 300 blows to kill in hard. Patience and stamina are the keys to victory. Jump to attack the head, you can hit it 4 times per jump. When an arm goes up, run to the other arm, you can attack while the meteor falls. If the head goes down, wait until its almost level with you, then jump. I'll introduce you to the double jump now. If he starts to go down in midair, hit space button before your jump peaks, you'll jump higher and avoid the flames. If he flies, run to the left, then far right, then far left again as the boulders fall. The laser is hardest, you wait about 4 seconds then jump off the platform, falling back on once the attack ends. Persist, be careful, and the demon will fall.