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I guess it's no surprise that, after the new Star Wars movie last summer, Lucas and his minions have flooded the market with more tie-in games than ever before. It's easy to criticize such a predictable marketing strategy, but you know what? If everything they release is as good as Pit Droids, they can flood the market all they want to as far as I'm concerned. From LucasLearning, a sister company to LucasArts, Pit Droids is a strategy puzzle game that's marketed to kids. Frankly, I think this is a mistake. Not because I don't think it's right for kids—I think they'll love it—but because it's just as appropriate for adults, who might very well miss this game because of its aggressive marketing toward children. Walk this Way The game takes place on the desert planet of Tatooine, and Watto – the flying junk dealer from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, has just received a huge shipment of pit droids. What the heck are pit droids, anyway? They're one-meter-tall worker robots who are all enthusiasm and no brain. They're so witless, in fact, that they will simply walk in a straight line unless told otherwise. It's up to you to turn them in the right directions in order to get them to their goals. Sounds very simple, doesn't it? It is, at first. The first few puzzles are simply about routing the little buggers to their proper destination. Quickly, however, things get more complicated. Soon you'll have to sort droids by color. Later, you'll have to sort them by color and by the tools they carry. In the most advanced puzzles, you'll have to sort by three factors—body color, tool type, and helmet color. With each puzzle comes a minimal amount of "turning disks" that you use to route the dim-witted little tin cans to their final destinations. The harder the puzzle, the more often it feels like there's no way you have enough tools to complete the job! Excellence as Far as the Eye Can See The game comes with a superb tutorial with C3PO as emcee (and yes, Anthony Daniels provides the voice!). The tutorial is so comprehensive I didn't crack the manual until I was done with the game. It's almost unnecessary to mention that the game has a magnificent musical score. Is there a Lucas game that doesn't? The jazzy, merry music perfectly complements the dutiful but dull-witted droids. The game can be played on three levels of difficulty. The player can also choose puzzles directly from a master list, rather than playing them in any "game order." A truly excellent "added value" feature is the Puzzle Maker. It contains all the tools you need to build your own puzzles! Enterprising kids should have a field day with this one. There's even a Puzzle Exchange at the Pit Droids website that allows you to exchange your custom puzzles with those of other players. To top it off, the game includes a beautifully produced manual. As I mentioned, I didn't really need it to play the game, but it does include lots of good information. Especially valuable is a section at the end that discusses the mathematics behind the puzzles. By now you're probably catching the drift of my enthusiasm for Pit Droids. It's one quality package that I would recommend to puzzle lovers from any age group. Final Grade: A If
you liked Pit Droids: System Requirements:
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