Archibald's Adventures
Platform: Mac, Windows
Archibald's Adventures is a puzzle platform game from Rake in Grass, creator of Larva Mortus, KingMania, and others. You play the skateboard-riding Archibald who accidentally becomes trapped in Professor Klumpfus' twisted underground lair. Roll your way through 100+ stages, moving boxes with bubblegum, leaping gaps with a running start, and hitting switches beneath pools of acid to work your way out of the mutant-infested passageways.It's one of those rare games that keeps begging you to come back for more.
Young Archibald starts the game riding a skateboard, thus granting him a certain set of abilities. You can roll left or right, build up speed to jump across large gaps, and leap heights exactly one block tall. Soon you'll get some gum that allows you to control a sticky bubble that can attach to wooden crates and move them around. These simple mechanics form the groundwork for the entire game, but learning to bend the rigid physics to your advantage is the key to mastering Archibald's Adventures.
Each stage is divided into a number of levels that culminates in a story-progressing final chapter. You can complete levels in any order you like, which works well when you get stuck on a nigh-impossible puzzle or jump that's too tough for you to handle. To move on to the next stage you must complete at least eight of the levels, but completists will have a blast finishing each and every level in the game.
Fortunately, Archibald's Adventures isn't content with keeping the basic mechanics unchanging throughout the game. Later you'll trade in your skateboard for a rolling pod that can stick to metallic surfaces (complete with a magnetic arm that can latch onto ceilings), and for a few levels you'll pilot a flying vehicle. The basic mechanics usually stay the same, though, so no matter what you're controlling, you're still in familiar territory.
Analysis: Delightfully old-school, both in terms of visuals and gameplay, Archibald's Adventures hooked me from the first level and wouldn't let go until I completed the game. The physics have a slight "on rails" feel to them and aren't completely natural, but its that artificial movement that builds the essence of the game that makes it such a joy to master. Learning how to bounce off walls to land where you need to, discovering ways to give yourself enough ground to make a long leap, and maneuvering bubble-box combos through tight situations is both immediately gratifying and satisfying in the long run. Archibald's Adventures is about learning what makes the game tick and bending those rules to your advantage. And that is infinitely more powerful than any list of features on a press release.
One minor complaint I have about Archibald's Adventures is its increasing reliance upon reflex-based platforming mechanics rather than cerebral puzzles. For the first third of the game you spend your time trying to figure out how to progress, but later it's more about hairpin jumps and trial-and-error timing puzzles. It's still challenging and it doesn't "break" the game, but it felt a little out of place to me.
Archibald's Adventures is a stellar game no matter how you look at it. If you're a fan of The Lost Vikings and similar side-scrolling action/puzzle games, Archibald's Adventures will tickle a similar corner of your nostalgic heart. The art direction is great, the gameplay is solid, and there's enough content and challenge to keep you rolling back for more day after day.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Get the full version
I downloaded this one a couple weeks ago. I've already beaten every level but one. I'd be more satisfied with this game if they'd included a level editor.
Just to make sure no one freaks out because of a strange sense of deja vu, I did write a blurb about this game when it was first released. But it's awesome, so now it gets its own space. :-)
I really like this game! Very old school. :)
But I also felt that the game became very reflex-based with less puzzles. Trial and error, hard labour (piling up dozen of boxes..) and later on the game some new features with a not very intuitive mechanics, like those pink springs or whatever that is.
Like JohnB said, definitely doesn't ruin the game! The several hours spent until now were worth it. But personally, I'm only gonna go back and try to finish it if I'm really bored. Is unhooked a real word? :P
It's a great puzzle-platformer and definitely worth the price.
And it IS available for Mac.
[Edit: We just noticed that, too. I've updated the tags and the download links. Thanks! -Jay]
My screen just flashes black and white.
Just downloaded the demo, it's pretty interesting..cool
I *love* how this game asks you first what screen resolution you want to play with, AND whether you want to play the game in fullscreen BEFORE it runs. :DDD
Not only that, but it FULLY SUPPORTS larger resolutions! I was able to select 1920x1200 and was able to see more of the game (woohoo!), not just a stretched version (yuk).
I hate it when games default to full screen, change your resolution without asking, and then all your desktop settings and windows have all changed. >:(
Holy cow! When I installed the game, Prevx quarantined it for trying to install a WORM on my Windows machine! Seriously, doesn't JIG screen games for malware?
[Edit: Virus checkers are error prone and often record false positives, especially when it comes to DRM. I believe that is the case here. This game comes from a reputable company, one that could not stay in business if its games were to contain malware. -Jay]
I saw this somewhere else. I downloaded it quite some time ago, and when I played the demo, it was awfully fun, not too hard at all. So I bought the game. However, fairly quickly it got into the hair-trigger accuracy type of thing, and that is way, way too frustrating for me. Actually it's a visual problem I have and if it involves that degree of accuracy then it's just not going to happen. If I had known that, I would not have bought the game. I was pretty ticked that I paid for it and am unable to complete the last third of the game or so. Thankfully it's not terribly expensive.
However I do think that the gameplay is smooth, and it's very cute, and very fun to play- otherwise. What would be nice is if they could bring out a downloadable fix that allows you to play in "easy" mode at will, eliminating the accuracy requirements and leaving or increasing the puzzles. Don't know if that's possible, though.
Thanks for all the friendly comments.
The game has no DRM or other harmful anti-piracy protection. It installs nothing but the game files. But some distributing web sites are adding wrappers and we can't control those. However, we are trying to cooperate only with trustful sites. If you think you got the game from a site that added a potentionaly harmful code, please contact us.
About the difficulty: We are considering to add difficulty option it the game. I'm sorry you had problems to play it. Maybe you can email us, where you get stuck, and I could help you with some advice.
"But I also felt that the game became very reflex-based with less puzzles." (I said this)
It is true.. but after I got over the boring part I found the really good level 6! even the two bonus levels were very nice! I caught myself staring at the screen trying to solve a problem several times. The rest of the game isn't bad either.. i guess it was only levels 3 to 5 that wasn't the best ones.
Btw, is there a way I can listen to the music? I love it! Wich is weird... I usually hate a music after listening for several hours!
I played the game until "Fall in" level 3 but got stuck. I saw the youtube video but in the video the guy wasn't affected by the acid drop as for me even though I managed to go across the other side I would get hit by the acid drop stationary or moving upward. Is this some kind of glitch? Thanks
I need help in the Achibalds adventure game, I cannot solve Level 5 game no 9, also level 7 game no 10,13,14. is there a cheats for this game. I know it can be done but I cannot see how to do it, as you may notice I am a novice gamer.Many thanks
I am stuck level 6-11 where u r in a room full of bricks with 1 spider and 2 pressure switches, 1 red button can anyone tell me which bricks to break and which 1's I leave alone?
Update