Prism: Light The Way

You can throw the story line in the trash.  Like most puzzle games with stories, the story is way beyond weak.  Why do developers feel the need to add story lines in some misguided attempt to give it more appeal?  A true puzzler doesn't need one.  Puzzle people will play it because it is a puzzle game, provided it is good. 

Game play is very simple.  You have targets that come in 4 colors.  Your goal is to use the tools you are given to get beams of light to strike the targets in the proper colors.  At your disposal you have mirrors to bounce the light around corners, prisms to break the beam into it's component colors, and blocks that split the light into a T, you also have 2 types of colored blocks that adjust the color of light..

The graphics for Prism are bright and colorful with a very cartoony look to them.  They are fairly basic but you don't need a lot of detail for this type of game, really.  The PC version has the worst graphics of the two.  It came out a year before the DS version, but that really doesn't explain why there is that much of a difference.  On the PC they are just not sharp and crisp like they are on the DS.  I'm disappointed that with a 'cutesy' story line the creatures don't have more personality.  I kept hoping that the little creatures would  be a little more expressive.  If you are trying to be cutesy with a puzzle game, you really need to go all out.  Chuzzle and Qbeez are examples of puzzle games that went the cute route with metric buttloads of personality squeezed in.

Sound is typical casual game fair and barely justifies an entire paragraph.  Light music plays in the background, with a sound played to indicate that you did something right, and another to indicate if you did something wrong.  This is another place that personality is sorely missed.

There are 4 single player modes: Puzzle, Time, Hyper and Infinite.  Puzzle and Time are very similar.  Puzzle has you going through 120 increasingly difficult levels, without a timer.  Just take your time and solve the puzzles.  The first levels are very easy, but all too quickly you'll find yourself scratching your head wondering how you got so stupid so fast.  Time gives you levels to solve in a certain amount of time.  You get time back when you solve a puzzle, so if you can solve it in less time than it gives you as a reward you will have more time to solve the next one.  Puzzle and Time modes use different puzzles so don't think you will breeze through time if you have solved a lot of the Puzzle mode levels.  Hyper gives you one light source and 2 mirrors.  Targets appear at random and you have to use your mirrors to hit the targets before they explode.   Finally, Infinite gives you random puzzles to solve and will do so infinitely.

(DS ONLY) Multi-player comes in two flavors, Co-Op and Competitive.  Competitive is just 2 player timed mode where both players try to solve the puzzles as fast as they can.  Co-Op has both players trying to solve the same puzzle.  The catch is both players work on different halves of the puzzle.  Only the half you are working on appears on your screen while you can only use the tools that are give for your half of the puzzle.  Devilish to say the least.

Control on the PC version is all mouse based and standard point, click and drag.  If you've ever used a mouse before, you're a pro already.  The DS uses the stylus pretty much exclusively, and it works very well with this game.  I did have some trouble sometimes picking up and dragging the pieces on the DS.  This only seemed to happen if pieces were at the outsides of the puzzle board, but it was annoying at times and could cause problems in Timed and Hyper modes where speed is important..

This game is not a bad little puzzler.  It's not really one that you want to play for hours and hours on end, but instead you will find yourself picking it up time and again for a quick burst of light bending fun.  The DS version is a little on the pricey side at $29.99, but the PC is priced better at $19.99 if you don't mind the lack of multi-player and graphics that just don't look 'complete'.