Reviews// ilomilo

Imagine if a Teletubby humped a Sackgirl in a level from echochrome and then nine months later a baby was born, only to be taken off and raised by its mad, soft uncle, the King of All Cosmos. That baby would be ilomilo.

It's a mad, logic-based 3D puzzler that is so sweet it's guaranteed to make your teeth fall out. All of them.

Down in the Park
You play as both 'ilo' and 'milo', two best mates who live on opposite sides of the park. Every day they meet up in the park and spend the day together, only, sadly, to part ways and head to their respective abodes as night falls. The problem is, the park has a nasty habit of being in a different configuration each and every day. That makes finding each other every day akin to completing a tough 3D logic puzzle downloadable from the Xbox Live Marketplace...

Furthermore, the geography of the park isn't conventional. Rather, it's arranged in cubes strung together to make elaborate three dimensional mazes in which gravity plays only a minor part.

You can also walk on any surface as long as there's a handy device of some sort to shift you from one surface to another. You can look at the screens now to get a better idea what I'm on about. I won't be offended.

Rubbish Little Legs
Anyway, because ilo and milo have rubbish little legs to get over gaps, switch between levels and change the surface you're on you'll need to pick up different blocks. These blocks can be used in an assortment of ways to get the two little guys (gals?) together. Some just plug gaps, some cause floating blocks to form a bridge that you can work across, some routinely fly upwards.

Controlling both of the little guys/gals is 100% necessary if you want to get anywhere at all in the game. Not only are you thinking in 3D in a big way, you're thinking in 3D from two different perspectives. It will most probably make your head wobble. It made my head wobble.

I'll be f*cked
Early on I was all, "Bah, this is fine." A few more hours in, my head should have exploded. It didn't, but it should have. It was being bent in all sorts of confusing ways I felt ill-equipped to deal with. Should I ever make it into space (or any other zero-G environment) I'll be f*cked.

Part of the beauty of ilomilo, though, is that it never feels gratuitously punishing, not even when you've been staring blankly at the same extending block for 20 minutes in the vague hope that fairies are going to swoop down and kick you in the brain with inspiration shoes.

A lot of that comes from the pleasant, warm feel of the game. A LOT of time and effort has obviously gone into making ilomilo as inviting as possible; with no small thanks to Media Molecule and LittleBigPlanet when it comes to design ethos.

As well as the cuddly visuals you can see in the screens, the game comes with an almost-too-twee tale which lacks only the reassuring tones of Stephen Fry's voice to make it as comfy to follow as LBP.

Grunting Space Marine Shooting
People from the grunting, space marine shooting mind-set might find this too saccharine. But most people should find it hovering marginally on the side of acceptable.

The upshot of all that cuddliness is that, while the puzzles can be very taxing, you're unlikely to be throwing your controller at the screen with the pain of it all. Rather, each puzzle feels like a conundrum to settle into rather than do battle with. It's relaxing rather than vexing. It's also immensely rewarding. It is, in fact, a beautifully formed puzzler.

Along with the single-player mode, there's a co-op mode that enables two players to take care of one of the main characters each. Rounding it out are a couple of mini-games that are... well, they're there. There's nothing wrong with them, but they don't match the elegance of the main puzzles.

Conclusion
In short, there's little more that you could ask of ilomilo. It's tight, enjoyable, incredibly well designed and... well, adorable. It will serve serious puzzle fans and younger gamers, and it'll do it in a thrifty sort of a way (it's 800 points). It should probably come with a health warning thanks to its teeth-dissolving sweetness, but it's tough not to be charmed by these two little love children of the Teletubbies.

SPOnG Score: 86%