The highly anticipated WiiWare puzzle game Bruiser and Scratch is now available for download on the Wii Shop Channel for Nintendo Wii.
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".
An extract from the WiiWare World review of Bruiser & Scratch:
"It seems only natural that a game being developed by former members of such an accomplished developer as Naughty Dog would begin to garner some serious hype when it's announced. While it's always nice for a developer to get some type of recognition ahead of time, it can also prove to be a double-edged sword when it comes time to judge the finished product. Of course it doesn't help that the game is yet another puzzle title on a service that is already becoming overrun with them. So was developer Steel Penny Games able to transfer enough of that past Naughty Dog magic over to their first WiiWare release Bruiser & Scratch to somehow keep it from getting lost in the crowd?
Bruiser & Scratch doesn't try to reinvent the wheel with its simple game play premise. The game basically takes a "less is more" approach to the puzzle genre and crafts a simple yet decently playable title that requires more thinking power than fast gaming reflexes. You basically take control of one of the two characters found in the game, Bruiser the bulldog or Scratch the cat. The level basically chooses the character for you and then alternates between the two as you progress through the game. Both have the same game play moves only differing in the way each of them looks in appearance."
