Review: Astroslugs

I have a confession to make, creative thinking is not exactly my strong suit. This is ironic because one of my favorite genres in the video game world is the puzzle genre. Stepping outside of a comfort zone, and actually using ones brain has become a thing of the past nowadays. In a world filled with mindless shooters and beat’ em ups, it’s nice a change of pace when something like Astroslugs comes along. While it may not be that complicated to play, the level of challenge on offer here will have you second guessing yourself every step of the way.

Astroslugs (PC, Mac)
Developer/Publisher: Bit Barons
Released: January 27, 2011

The evil astroslugs have crashed landed their ship onto a strange planet, and it’s up to you to help them get back home. Apparently the only way to do this is by solving increasingly brain teasing puzzles, which will in turn provide the ship with more energy. At first, the solutions are pretty much as simple as adding one and two together, but eventually they will get to the point where pulling out hair doesn’t seem like a bad idea. This concept is simple enough to be entertaining, yet complicated enough to encourage players to keep on going.



One thing that tends to be ignored with most games like this is the quality of their presentation. The reason why something like this happens is because the players eyes will tend to focus primarily onto the problem at hand and nothing else. Granted, this isn’t spectacular by any means, but each level is bright and colorful, and does have some nice effects to them. In the desert level, sand will blow in the wind, birds will fly around in the forest area, and so on. Having a soothing musical score did help keep my level frustration to a minimum as well.

On the surface, everything is easy to understand. There are a certain amount of shapes laid out onto the right side of a stage, and they all have to fit into the grid in the middle in order to complete the level. Drawing and erasing is all done with the mouse, and for the most part, it feels tight and responsive. Where things get tricky is when the game encourages you to draw them out in more than one way. Just because something worked in a prior level, doesn’t mean it will work in the next one. Every single puzzle brings on a new challenge, and will for sure separate the men from the boys.



There were only a couple of problems I experienced during gameplay, most of which were caused by the speed of my own computer, and not much else. Loading screens did tend to go on for a little bit too long, and there were a couple of times in which the framerate tended to slow down, making drawing a much more daunting task to accomplish. This wasn’t a major problem for me though, just more of an minor annoyance. A lack of a hint system does encourage the players to think for themselves, but for those of us who need help every once in awhile, this not being included could take out the fun factor really quickly.

Overall, the entire quest could take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours to complete, which could end up being more or less depending on your skill level. I have to admit that it took me more than 15 to complete the entire game, and that was with help from family and friends. There are bonus levels to play, but that is where the replay value stops, at least for now. After talking with one of developers in my Bit Barons Interview, he stated that a level editor could possibly be included in a future update, along with a hint system, so be on the lookout for that.



Astroslugs is one of those rare instances where the critical thinking, and problem solving skills of a video gamer are the most important,and not how well he or she can repeatedly tap buttons. This will take hours off of your life, but in all honesty, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. (B)

 - Matt H.

P.S.- If you are interested in picking this game up, please do so directly from the developers website www.astroslugs.com and show them the support that they deserve.