HEART STAR GUIDE

There's a lot to like in Heart Star. It's a clever puzzling platformer that puts you in control of two different characters. One of them is red, one of them is blue. The aim of the game is to get them both to the yellow torch safely. The red character can only stand on red or purple platforms, the blue on blue or purple.

Many games have you controlling two or more characters in an attempt to reach the level's end, however, what makes Heart Star especially enjoyable is the emphasis it places on having the two characters interact with each other, and their respective worlds. Rather than simply make you navigate one set of obstacles twice, you have to make your way through two different layouts in each level.

Adventure Islands, the developer behind Tiny Dangerous Dungeons and Super Dangerous Dungeons  a new puzzle-platformer called Heart Star. Here, you'll have to swap between two different characters in order to get them both to the final purpose. Each character, Red and Blue, has blocks that activate when they're in control, but those blocks' existence doesn't dissipate when you switch characters. 

So, Red can stand on a red platform in midair, and stay there even when inactive. This allows you to use the two characters in clever ways, like standing on one in the middle of a big gap in order to traverse a tricky passage in order to get each character to the goal

 
You switch between the two characters with the tap of a button. And from there that things start to get interesting.The platforms that you're leaping on aren't the same for each character. And sometimes platforms one can stand on, the other can stand on as well, but only when you're playing as them.

The game eases you into things gently before ramping up the difficulty, making you learn both sides of each stage while you use your partner to strategically fill in the gaps. And as it turns out, what you don't see CAN hurt you; if you put your partner on a collision course with spikes in their world, simply switching over to your world won't save them.

But you can stand on the other character's head, essentially turning them into a platform to help you reach hard to get to places. You can carry characters around as well, which is especially useful if the floor is covered in spikes that are going to kill one of them and not the other.

The game toys with these central mechanics in different ways right up until the ending, keeping the formula on its toes. It puts your spatial awareness and memorization skills through their paces, helps both sides of a level feel truly connected, and cultivates a sense of real teamwork. It also provides a vehicle for some surprisingly precision platforming segments, as your partner is a fairly small stepping stone.

The game adds new ideas as it goes along. There are buttons you need to push, gates you need to open, and all manner of other things that are trying to kill you.

But the puzzling core remains the same. It's solid, it's smart, and when you figure out what you're supposed to be doing you'll give a little cheer.

Sometimes the controls do get a little bit fiddly, but it's in keeping with the retro vibe of the whole thing, and it's unlikely to annoy you too much.

Switch it down

All in all this is an excellent game of reaction and head scratching. It's not just twitchy, it's not just a full puzzler, but the blend it presents you with is an interesting and engaging one.

There are some annoying advertisements, and some other bits and bobs that might grate, but at last you're going to have a lovely old time bouncing around its single screen levels.

 Game Features:
- Unique world swapping gameplay
- 50 levels of mind bending puzzles
- Cutting edge retro pixel graphics
- Catchy and cute retro soundtrack

Because your jump is large and wide, this can make some of these tighter jumps a little more tense than they should be, as it's hard to make small movements in the air. But there's very few of these setbacks in this otherwise delightful game. Sweet as it is, there's more to Heart Star than a cutesy-wootsy face; it adeptly melds many familiar elements into a neat and unified whole.

You can play Heart Star here: