Paths

"Next-gen" mouse avoider?

Reviewed by Shawn from afro-ninja.com

Paths is a mouse-based ‘avoider’ game where you must pilot your little ball to the end point, while manipulating the objects around it to make sure it arrives safely. The twist though is that you must actually draw the path yourself, and manipulate the obstacles in real time as the ball speeds down your pre-drawn path.

While I maybe wouldn’t call Paths ‘next-generation,’ it certainly gives a new and original approach to the mouse avoider game that is pretty fun to play. Right off the bat I’d like to mention that the game’s difficulty level is fairly unbalanced, and if anything leans toward too hard. The first couple levels are cake, then at level three you’re already going to be facing some difficulty. This pattern seems to repeat, as sometimes you can get through a stage in a single try, while the next stage will have you gripping your mouse in frustration.

Despite difficulty levels, what I really like about paths is the level design and mixture of level objectives. Sure, you always have to get your ball to the end- but sometimes the emphasis is on drawing the path correctly, while sometimes the emphasis is much more on moving the obstacles correctly. Obstacles come in many shapes and varieties, from sliding blocks to rotating circular patterns. In later levels these are combined, where you will have to slide a block inside of a rotation, rotate the object, then slide the block again. Very creative. You have a set amount of ink to draw your path for each level, but this generally wasn’t a problem. I ran out a few times, but nothing I couldn’t fix by redrawing a little faster. A key feature that I think would have made this game more enjoyable would be erase parts of your lines. It’s a common problem to draw your line absolutely perfect for most of the path, then to mess up at the very end and have to start all over again. With the complexity of some of the levels, I think this would have been an addition more than welcome.

Graphics are on the simple side but they’re not exactly a selling point of the game either, so no worries. Sure, things could have been prettied up here and there but it’s not like anything is an eyesore. There’s a nice catchy sound loop going on in the background, made by the author himself no less. You’d better decide whether or not you like it in the main menu though, because after that you can’t turn it down/off. Another odd oversight is that the game doesn’t mention that you can redraw your path by clicking on the ball again. It’s not hard to figure out, but should have been mentioned in the mini-tutorial. Paths has 20 levels to entertain you with (watch out for 15), and a highscore submit at the end. It boils down to entertainment for the casual player, and recognition for the hardcore.

Click here to play Paths






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