Take a colorful world with movie, television, and book references and an outstanding and clever puzzle system and you have this indie hit.
General Gameplay
Mr. Pumpkin Adventure is a puzzle style game in which you use a point and click system to go through the levels solving environmental and math style puzzles to progress. The game is unique in the style in which the puzzles are shown as they make you think and pay attention to the environment. The Graphics in the game are done in a very artistic fashion that sucks you right in. Yes, there are some weird characters in the game, however it gives the personality that makes the game interesting. The colors in the game are more in the warmer tones and easily seen in the game. For those that have a colorblind issue there were some points in the game in which it was a little hard to see the red/greens, but this was very minor and easily adjusted in the SMART TV settings. In our playtesting we did not run into any graphics issues that would be a concern for any gamers in your gaming family. Audio in Mr. Pumpkin Adventure is mostly sounding effects that you would hear from interacting with objects from opening a safe or picking up objects. The background music is a blend of a jazzy style of melody that is very relaxing and fun to hear. In our playtesting, we did not encounter any foul language that would be offensive to younger gamers. The whole story is told by text so there is no spoken dialog in the game. The game is presented in 5.1 surround sound be can easily be heard in a stereo headset. For parents/guardians that use a gaming headset or allow other gamers to use one, please use caution with extended use of a gaming headset and have gamers take a 15-minute break in between usage. Controls in the game are very easy to use and simple. As the game is more of a point and click in its design and nature, the game controls settings are designed to be the same way. The left thumb stick moves the cursor and there is one button for an action to be done. This game is very family friendly in its control design for anyone to pick up and play the game. In our playtesting, everyone from young to old were able to play the game without any trouble. As the game does not require a special controller, the standard controller, or keyboard/mouse for PC gamers should be fine.
“Between the mellow music, and clever puzzles, Mr. Pumpkin Adventure is a smart and fun puzzle game”
Family Friendly
Most puzzle games challenge you to find an object to use to unlock other areas, which is the most cases in puzzle-based games, but what makes Mr. Pumpkin Adventure stand out is how well they implemented this into the game to make all the puzzles fresh and new. Something it may require you to be good at math or be very observant of your surroundings to find the solution of the puzzle at hand. Now before you think that the game is very hard, it is not. It is all about how you approach the puzzle and know what to do to solve it. Now I will admit when we played it outside of our testing group for some of the harder puzzles we had to use a guide to figure out how to solve them but as some of us are not really good at math, this made more sense to do, but what it does take away from the game is that moment of satisfaction when you do solve it without any help or guide. Again, the puzzles in the game are not to hard or easy but a right balance of how they should be. Another thing that we love was the artistic style that the developer went with. By adding historical, pop culture and general references it makes the game feel more alive. The audio also with its jazzy style of music leave a mellow and calming feel to the game. Also, as the controls are easy to pick up and play the game. Gamers from the age of 8 and up were able to play the game without any trouble. Now we feel that Mr. Pumpkin Adventure is a great game for parents/guardians to play with children as you can play as a team and figure out the puzzles. In our special needs game testing, all of our special needs gamers loved the game and how much fun the puzzles are in the game. We did notice especially in gamers with Autism that they especially like the game as it gave them a fair challenge at the puzzles and seeing their faces when they were able to solve a puzzle was priceless. The only complaint that we have is that the game can be short, around 6-8 hours, but because the game is priced very low ($3.99 at the time of writing this review) it is a great investment for any digital library.
Closing
If you are in the market for a great, family friendly puzzle game that is not only fun to play but the puzzles are intelligently thought out, then Mr. Pumpkin Adventure is the game to have.
