Move Mind Benders Review (PS3)

Three IQ testing titles that’ll charm your brain before crushing it

Are you sick of brain numbing on-rail shootathons that utilise nothing but point ‘n’ die mechanics? Do you cringe as your dignity seeps away as you wave your magical wand/glow-in-the-dark bauble in ridiculous attempts to earn trophies and complete games? Perhaps it’s time to settle down, rest your aching joints and start bringing plenty of pain to the one muscle that’s been on something of a vacation since the Playstation Move’s release with Move Mind Benders. A collection of three PSN exclusives, Move Mind Benders consists of three brilliant brain teasers; Tumble, Lemmings and Echochrome ii to get your puny head around. A great blend of lateral thinking, spacial awareness and plenty of brain delving outside the box, the collection is sure to test your wits in every lobe department. First up, Tumble, a strangely addictive stack-’em-up, or a Tetris for the more structurally sane. Settling you down in a little play pen filled with various shaped blocks, you’re given a vast variety of challenges consisting of attempting to build (and sometimes demolish) towers which would probably make it on Grand Designs, but won’t be stable enough to withstand a mild fart. Tumble plays around with that innocent form of play that had you stacking marker pens as high as you could as a kid. Despite its simple concept, the trials get more and more challenging with each level testing both your wits and your nerve. You can play it safe and build a sensible structure that won’t awkwardly shuffle around, but that’ll only obtain you bronze medals all round. As you play it safe, you can just hear that gameshow audience screaming ‘GAMBLE!’, urging to to take a risk, place some precarious blocks where they just shouldn’t be placed in order to upgrade your medals to gold. Controls are incredibly accurate and help to propel the gameplay to incredibly addictive levels. Stacking awkward towers has never been so fun…or tense.

An enjoyable assortment of bite-size puzzlers that’ll poke at your IQ for hours

Next up, a more classic offering of Lemmings…because someone has to think for the daft buggers. Chucking you in various environments a la Worms style, you’re forced to assign small critters jobs in order to safely get them from A to B. The problem is, they all seem to be on some horrid acid trip where everywhere they walk is a yellow brick road when it’s actually a pit of spikes. With no concept of halting in the face of danger, you’re forced to assign the cretins’ short lived careers in an attempt to carve a path of safety for them. Thankfully you have the chance to pause, so not every level is an imbecile fuelled race against time. Should you not be the sort of oldie who played Lemmings back in its prime, you’ll have a few taster levels to get into the swing of things. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll see why the series is such a classic. It’s remarkably simple, yet rather deep once you start herding and obtaining new abilities for the little blighters. It’s the only title on the disc that doesn’t really truly integrate the Move controls that well though, and although the visuals are vivid and colourful, some graphical hic-ups are slightly annoying. These are rather cosmetic cons, though, and don’t ruin the addictive gameplay. Forward thinking is required to save the cretins from a certain doom, and you can’t help but fill with pride once the required number reaches safety. You connect to the little blighters, you name the guys who managed to tunnel everyone to freedom, who sacrificed themselves to stop others falling into pits of lava and If it all sounds too cutesy for you, don’t worry. Later levels are so scalp wrenchingly hard that you’ll soon go from Samaritan to Hulk. Finally, possibly the most intriguing pick of the mix is Echochrome ii, a wonderfully crafted platformer/puzzler with a truly unique perspective…that plays with your own. Each level begins with a mysterious assortment of floating blocks. Cast your Move controller over the blocks and use it as a torch however, and the mysterious shadow land is formed, the only dimensional plain your character can move across. His problem is progressing forward (and he thankfully won’t kill himself like those dumb Lemmings). Your problem is connecting the dismantled blocks by means of the shadows. Two separate blocks become one solid platform in the shadows, and it’s this logic you must adapt to in order to progress. It’s incredibly surreal to play, as if you’re stuck in one of those creepy Krypton Factor animations from back in the 90’s. The games’ challenges aren’t conventionally challenging, rather mind massaging. There’s multiple ways to complete puzzles and you won’t be tearing you hair out in sheer frustration of the conundrums. The game builds up a cautious sense of optimism as you play, so when you do get stumped, you know that perseverance will eventually see you through. Should you be an Echochrome ii protégée, there are two more game modes on offer to sink your teeth into that’ll truly test your knowledge of the levels. One where your avatar must colour in all the blank blocks on the screen, forcing them to find new ways around levels in order to reach promiscuous blocks floating acres away. Another where you must save other litle ‘echoes’ scattered around the level and limiting your experimentation in order to catch em’ all. No matter what you play, you’ll always be striving to complete the levels in the quickest times for brain bragging rights, and leaderboards on each ensure the competitive will be mastering challenges for hours on end. Become an Echochrome ii genius, and you can even upload your own levels that’ll hopefully break the brains of other players. Although all three games twist your brain in different ways, they all share a common characteristic. All are incredibly easy to pick up and play, and once each lure you in with the easier levels, it’s rather difficult to turn your back on any of the titles once you get stuck in. Shop around, and you can even get Move Mind Benders for cheaper than all three games in total on PSN. A great collection of brain-teasers, Move Mind Benders is an enjoyable assortment of bite-size puzzlers that’ll poke at your IQ for hours.

Bronze Y Award

3.5 / 5