The visuals are merely passable -- some of the background geometry surrounding boards is interesting. For instance, an oblivious cow grazing on a platform suspended in mid-air. Little bits of vegetation that threatens to crawl into the board. But the character models lack animation and the textures are usually a little blurrier than they ought to be, even for a WiiWare title.
On the other hand, the puzzles are smart and the controls work well, even if they are extremely simple. If you like brain-teasers, you will definitely enjoy some of the hurdles that await you as you try to devise ways to combine on-board objects to complete the main challenge, all the while scratching your head. And the good news is that there are plenty of boards to keep you going.
Presentation - 4.0
Graphics - 5.0
Sound - 2.0
Gameplay - 7.0
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
GR writes: "WiiWare. It kind of sounds like it could be a dental dam for special occasions. Something that needs to be sterilized immediately after use. I had been hesitant to check WiiWare titles out, partially because of my aversion to the name, but mostly because of my old thinking. I used to believe that for a game to even have a chance of being good, I'd have to travel to a store and give them lots of money first.
Then I was invited to try Bruiser and Scratch. If it is any indication of the quality of other games in the WiiWare family, I'll be checking the list from time to time. I was pleasantly surprised with this one, and I never left my couch."
+ Solid, challenging puzzles
+ High value for the price
- Ir-resolute graphics
- Disturbingly familiar soundtrack
Game Vortex writes: "There's a very good chance that due to some less-than-stellar production values, you may miss one of the better puzzle games to hit the Wii. Now, Puzzle is a broad category, we realize. Games like Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village are little more than a collection of puzzles, but by virtue of their storytelling become something greater. On the other side, games in the Fire Emblem series are known for their storytelling, but are at heart just fancy set pieces (aka "puzzles"). The line between strategy and good puzzle-solving is sometimes very gray, but there's no such line between good and bad production".
The highly anticipated WiiWare puzzle game Bruiser and Scratch is now available for download on the Wii Shop Channel for Nintendo Wii.
