So there are these luminous critters who suspiciously look like those guys from Cut the Rope, and they like to take naps in dark, ancient ruins. But one day their babies decided to wake up and get lost in the shadowy catacombs.  Now it’s up to the grown-ups to light the way and save their kids!  Light in the Dark is a unique game that requires you to solve light and shadow puzzles along with some color mixing, too.  It’s available to download on iOS devices, Android, and Windows Phone, but reviewed on iPad here.

Each level in the game is a single screen maze and your job is to move your glowing creatures using your finger on the touch screen so they shine light on their babies. But it’s not that easy.  Blocks and corridors may cause you to cast shadows that you’ll have to position yourself around, and you can’t cross over pits, either.  Also, certain colored babies will only react to the light of their color.  Sometimes you may have to mix colors to make a new one that matches the baby in that level.  Other levels may have you rotating and positioning mirrors to reflect light into hard to reach spaces.  In later stages, you’ll have to watch out for enemy mummy characters.  Shine light on them too long and you’ll lose the level!  When all the babies have light shone on them for a given amount of time, you win the stage and can move onto the next.

In each stage are three stars scattered about as well. If you shine the same color light on the stars as well as all the babies, you’ll earn those stars for that level.  It’s not always easy to do so, but you’ll want to collect as many stars as you can because they unlock challenging trial levels as well as whole new tombs to explore.  You can also use hints to show you where to position your creatures.  Some levels let you use hints for free, and you start off with three hints and can purchase more in the in-game shop.  Really the only problem is that sometimes the movements can be a little choppy, but that only affects how smooth you can drag things around.  But if you enjoy creative and challenging puzzlers, you may want to give this one a try anyway.  I especially liked how they had a color blind option in the options menu, as the game uses a lot of color hues in the puzzles!  And there are some humorous items you can see buried in the tombs, too (like E.T. cartridges).

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here. Reading skill is helpful for some of the text instructions.  Younger gamers may get frustrated at some of the tougher puzzlers, and parental supervision is recommended for in-game purchases.

Tags: Game Reviews