Star Struck
Krish Raghav -
Monday, September 22, 2008 10:52 AM
It's not often that your humble
mouse cursor turns into a valiant, puzzle-solving adventurer.
Hoshi's Saga, a continuing series of games (The third was released yesterday) from the mysterious
Japanese game designer Yoshio Ishii, is your mouse cursor's secret
life - watch it punch out metal blocks, summon mysterious winds,
harrass trapeze artists and encourage stick figures on trampolines.
(Note: Im not making any of these up. These are actual levels from
the game, pictured messily below. WARNING: Level Spoilers!)
Hoshi's saga is a beautifully drawn, minimalist puzzle game,
consisting of a total of 81 puzzles over 3 games, where the objective
is the same: find the star hidden in each level. There are no
tutorials, or instructions. Only your mouse cursor.
Some of the puzzles are simple - like trimming off edges from a
blob shape to form a star, or photographing a shooting star falling
across the sky. Others are quirky - like making the sun set to make
the moon and stars appear, or reeling in a star from a murky grey
sea. Yet all are consistently lovely, almost always eliciting
a satisfied chuckle at figuring them out.
All of this, of course, is done purely with the cursor: clicks and
drags usually do the trick, there's the occasional mouse-over and
even rarer double click.
The game loads individual puzzles separately, so loading times may
be a bit wonky, depending on the puzzle you're playing. Bonus stages
are unlocked by completing rows and columns in the game's main
screen.
In the event of annoyance and frustration, walkthroughs for all
the puzzles are available here, here and here.
But remember, the mouse is your friend - and hero.
When in doubt, click furiously.