Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians Review

Initially cute, Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians is a simple puzzle game, but one that's perhaps a little too easy and soulless to truly captivate.

Players control a lifeling as they ride along the bottom of the screen on a pink elephant. Riding is automatic with controls affecting the trajectory of the berries thrown upwards. These berries must hit certain points of a platform in order to help the other lifelings run to safety, away from the evil darlings.

Things start out slow and simple. The elephant slowly walks across the screen, leaving the player plenty of time to line up their shot in order to hit a platform. As things progress, however, new challenges emerge. Different colored platforms need different colored berries to be thrown at them. Some platforms aren't directly accessible, leaving players to bounce a shot off a wall or moving platform in order to get it to land on the right spot. Sometimes, to reach the missing platform, players must pass the berry through a special vortex that changes its color, ensuring players must keep track of how that will help them. Bonuses are awarded for collecting the various stars around the level, also, with ammo frequently at a premium. Often, it's not always immediately easy to hit all three targets within a level first time. Fortunately, for the casual player, hitting just one target is enough to progress to the next stage.

Problems lie in such simplicity, though. It's the kind of gameplay that's ideal for novice gamers or children, but often, it's too easy to progress far for the experienced gamer to feel satisfied. While players can speed up the action, Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians still feels quite a laid back game which is a double-edged sword, depending on who's playing. Throw in some annoying looping music that will make any player want to hit the mute button, and soulless presentation outside of the initial opening screens and Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians isn't as appealing as it first seemed, especially while it only includes a meagre 36 levels.

Yam Yam: Puzzle Guardians offers plenty of initial charm but its low difficulty curve and lack of long-lasting personality is off-putting. While new elements might emerge through the levels, none feel gripping enough to make one continue playing other than for the sake of finishing up.