"It's Tea Time, Motherfsckers!"
Reviewed by Jaden Walker
Released: March 17th, 2009
Developer/Publisher: EA Games (Henry Homepage)
Verdict: Buy it. Hell, buy two!
Pros: One of the most unique gaming concepts ever. Insanely addictive.
Cons: Sharing the game with siblings/ significant other (hence the “buy two” recommendation)
*PORTABLE GOODIES: Download the entire Henry Hatsworth Soundtrack right here. Free. Legal. Really.
When this game was originally described to me, I had no idea how it would be achieved. A 2-D platformer on the top screen, and a match-three puzzler on the bottom. It may be hard to visualize, but it got my attention. I’m glad it did. This is one of the first must-have DS titles of the year, and the best I’ve played since Professor Layton.
The game may be a little bit easier to explain if I try to do it only one screen at a time.
On the top screen, you control Henry Hatsworth, a lovable rich British gentleman who attacks people with his cane and old fashioned hunting rifle. I’m honestly reminded a bit of Duck Tales and their classic NES game, but the game play is quite different (which unfortunately means no pogo-cane). You jump around, slash with your cane, and fire your gun to take out bizarre baddies like frogs, knights in full armor, skeletons, bats, and many others. Some take many more hits than others, so it’s not just about dodging and striking. As you kill the bad guys, they’ll be spirited away to the bottom screen’s puzzle (more on that shortly).
On the bottom screen, you have a match-3 puzzler. There are several different colored blocks, some of which have items in them, that you have to match by sliding them left and right. You cannot move them up and down creating quite the challenge. That said, if you push one to the side and there’s nothing underneith it, it will fall down on top of the next highest block. If the blocks reach the top of the screen, there’s nothing to really worry about, they’ll just keep moving. The puzzle continues to move no matter what you’re doing on the top screen. The really unique aspect of this is how the puzzle integrates with the top screen’s action. As baddies are killed on the top screen, they’ll fly down to the bottom screen and into blocks of the puzzle. Some can become items, and others will put a set of eyes on the block. If the blocks with the eyes on them reach the top of the touch screen, they’ll make their way back to the top screen and become incredibly powerful and hard to avoid, so it’s best to try and match them up quickly and make them go away.
So I can hear everyone now, how do you work with both screens? It’s remarkably easy! You start on the top, of course, making your way through the level. When you see powerups or baddies on the bottom that you want to work in the puzzle, you press the X button. The action on the top will freeze, and you’ll be able to work on the puzzle. When you press X again, you’ll return to the top screen. As you kill more baddies or match more blocks, the timer on the puzzle will increase, allowing you to work on the puzzle longer. If it runs out, you won’t be able to stay on the puzzle, allowing baddies to return to the top screen to get a second chance to take out good old Henry.
But I haven’t even told you about the best part of the game, yet. As you solve the puzzle and get more of the “blinky” blocks, you’ll fill up a meter on the right side of the touch screen. Once it’s full, a cup of tea will appear on the bottom screen. If you touch it, the game will disappear and you will be taken to a scene of Henry Hatsworth drinking tea with some of his smarmy friends as he says, “Good show!” The words “Tea Time” are emblazoned across the screens. Suddenly, the ambient classical music turns into electric guitar playing the same song, and a gigantic robot with Henry at the helm flies upward across the blur of a British flag. Once the awesome animation is done, you now control this robot on the top screen to bash your way through baddies with amazing power (which is great on boss fights!). You’ll stay in this suit until the power bar on the puzzle runs out (which you can refill by working the puzzle). The suit is invincible, but the power bar will run down each time you’re hit.
So not only is the gameplay unique and amazing, the story and characters blew me away as well. All the dialogue is accompanied by random accented grunting and a few stereotypical words (like “pip-pip” and “gov’na”). This gives an amazing personality to the game, but does get a bit old on lengthy storyline sections of the game. As for the story, Henry is looking for each piece of golden gentleman’s clothing around the world. Whomever wears every piece of it will have access to all the treasure in the world. As you collect each one, you’ll gain extra powers, as well (like being able to spring off walls with the pantaloons).
If you’re still reading this review, and haven’t stopped to run out and buy a copy yet, I don’t know what else I can tell you to convince you on this title. Honestly, though, Henry Hatsworth is a must have DS title for all ages. It’s simple enough for anyone to understand, but hard enough to give you a challenge that will last a nice long time. I, for one, hope to see a sequel to this game, as I can’t wait for more!
Popularity: unranked [?]
