Review: Hamilton’s Great Adventure

Posted by Brad T on September 1st, 2011 | 2 Comments | Tags: Hamilton's Great Adventure

Hamilton’s great adventure stars Ernest Hamilton, a retired adventurer who is recounting his escapades to his granddaughter Amy. The story is told by Hamilton and a photo album of his adventures. In between the story portions are the adventures that he went on with his trusty companion bird Sasha. With her help and a few unlockable skills, Hamilton tells his whole story of traveling across 4 different countries in his quest for the fluxatron. Each world is made up of 11 levels as well as unlockable bonus levels.

Gameplay is reminiscent of Chip’s Challenge from the old Windows Entertainment Pack, with a few tweaks. The goal of each level is to get the golden key and advance to the exit. The real challenge comes in the form of collecting all the treasure in each level. I focused on collecting treasure as much as I could, but once the levels started getting more and more difficult, my impatience took over. It is much easier to complete the levels if you don’t adhere to collecting the treasure, yet you’re really missing out on half of the challenge without collecting the various gold pieces and diamonds strewn about the levels. Don’t do what I did, take it slow, master each level and move on.

Graphically things are a bit zoomed out, but this is needed to see and plan your moves accordingly. Once I knew the direction of the moves I would make I would zoom in so I could better see the graphics. They do the job, they don’t confuse the player, and they mix up after each world. I liked world 4’s graphical style the most. Music is adventurous, and kind of sets the tone for brain teasing, especially on the 4 challenge levels.

The game takes its time on introducing new mechanics, and there seems like there is always something new to contend with, be it spring boards, conveyors, quicksand, or the rarely used teleporters. The main obstacle you’re going to encounter is breakaway tiles. The majority of the game focuses on thinking before you take a step. Too many times I would walk on a break-away tile and step off it before realizing I had just painted myself into a corner. Take your time, and move smartly.

Your companion bird Sasha plays a minor role in your adventure. She can fly around and hit switches for Hamilton, distract enemies, and collect magic pink dust. The dust allows Hamilton to use his special moves once he unlocks them, such as dashing. It was kind of relaxing to fly her around the level right before beating it and grabbing the dust I had missed. Each level also contains a treasure chest filled with dust, usually requiring a keen eye to locate.

Hamilton’s Great Adventure is a solid puzzle game, that will take you a good six hours to get through, more if you’re gonna shoot for all the gold and defeat the bonus levels. The story wasn’t obnoxious, but actually engaged me. If you’re at all into puzzlers like this, check it out, its difficulty never gets obnoxious, but mastery is no easy task.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation 3 version of the game.