PixlBit

I am almost, sort of, maybe certain that I am not an idiot, at least not all of the time. I have my moments, though, and Storm gave me quite a few. Pitting my wits against two-dimensional idyllic nature scenes that desperately need my intervention to move fruit from one place to another was an enjoyable and challenging experience until the game’s physics and controls ruined everything.

I had to endure a saddening descent from my initial fascination with Storm’s aesthetics, mechanics, and puzzle design. With a series of puzzles set in each of the four seasons starting with spring, Storm does a good job of introducing new tools and means to transport the pieces of fruit from one tree to the next patch of fertile ground. You’ll be pushing the little fruits with wind and water, and making it hop into the air with a well-timed lightning strike. You’ll set grass afire and float logs into convenient locations. You’ll tax your noggin to figure out how to apply these powers of nature to get fruit moved across landscapes with caverns, plateaus, hills, and endless pits.

The puzzle design in each level is well thought out, and sometimes devilishly clever. It’s the puzzles that rely completely on your wits with a dash of timing when Storm is wonderful. When you see the path you should guide the little fruits along, not only do you feel pretty sharp, but it’s actually rather pleasing to send the little guys on their successful journeys. In fact, it was fairly enjoyable to just stare at the scenery, listen to the generally calming music, and ponder the best means to succeed.

The puzzles don’t get stale as you progress, mostly bolstered by the addition of new skills at the start of each season. When you move from spring to summer, the ability to start a grass fire seems odd but then opens up so many new brain twisting situations that it freshens everything up. The same thing almost happens when you move to autumn from summer, but this is where things also start to go terribly wrong.

Although a few of the puzzles in summer and spring rely on timing and speed, these requirements really start to ramp up in the autumn. Introduced along with that coordination spike, the fashionable new skill for autumn is the ability to create small tornadoes to carry and throw the fruit – a pretty nifty idea. Unfortunately, the joystick handling to create and manage the little twisters is inconsistent when it works and often doesn’t even function. I spent countless minutes spinning the thumbstick at varying speeds to try and master the creation of the tornadoes and seemed to find differing levels of success with nearly identical techniques. Frustration from this process – repeating the same motions and getting wildly different results – is the same behavior that made me start to dislike Storm and eventually have an all out tantrum that would put my two-year old to shame.

There are certain puzzles that rely on fairly precise timing of multiple skills to push and float and throw your fruit in one slick series of well-timed actions. When these scenarios pan out, they are pretty damn satisfying, but when you are stuck trying to finesse things in some exact combination that cannot be deciphered it becomes maddening. There are several scenarios like this that I ran into, where I eventually was able to proceed after some lucky combination of actions just happened to work out. My final breaking point was when I had to return and repeat one of these segments because of a mistake later in the level. I simply could never get past that point again. I tried the exact same thing that got me through that particular bit of the level countless times and then slight variations and then major variations and then all over again. I was stuck. Didn’t finish. I don’t give a flying fruit, either!

I assumed I would finish every level in this game, with a few skips here and there. I used up the limited opportunities to skip levels too soon, apparently, opting to just bypass a couple that had me stymied from the start. So, I was left trying to finagle past this one particular stage to get to winter and experience the full game. As it is, I definitely got my fill, and it all ended on a pretty sour note. (Actually, it ended on several piano-pounding-of-Rachmaninoff-intensity notes that weren’t angering until I hit this point and had to hear them over and over during my darkest moment.)

I can safely say that I now really hate Storm, but is it a bad game? No. There’s definitely a lot here that should make you consider giving it a go. The picturesque nature setting, the smart puzzle design, and the overarching creativity of the concept make it worth trying Storm if you enjoy a good puzzler. There is just a certain point when it’s best to stop playing. Be content finishing the puzzles you enjoy and calmly walk away when it’s no longer fun and you’ll be as pleased as a peach.