Speaking of Moomoos, this brings me to my only major problem with the game. The mind-numbing story and infantile visual approach taken by this game takes away from an otherwise excellent title. The gist of the storyline reads like a children's book, complete with every other word sounding like the stereotypical noise made by a baby. In a not too distant galaxy, the planet Roo is in trouble. Falling meteors (pieces from the game) that somehow normally bring peace and beauty to the planet begin to be consumed by King Goo and his followers. This transforms King Goo into King Moo, and his followers into Moomoos. You, as the purest Roogoo left, are then tasked with trying to collect these meteors and restore planet Roo to its former state. Standing in your way are Prince Moo and the rest of the Moomoos, who are trying to consume the descending meteors.

This kind of baby-talking gibberish is hard to stomach in anything but miniscule doses and unnecessarily alienates many gamers who would otherwise enjoy the title. Most people will likely take one look at this title and write it off as nothing more than a game made specifically for children. This is truly unfortunate, since the game is quite excellent as well as decently challenging. Although the game seems to be visually directed towards children, I believe it to be far too difficult to appeal to that audience. This game ends up feeling somewhat like another Viva Piñata in the sense that the visuals look too childish for most adult players, yet the gameplay is probably too difficult for many younger players. Ultimately, this sort of confusion usually results in some great games that not many end up experiencing.

Thankfully, if you wish to avoid being continuously subjected to the storyline, you can always just stick to the game's multiplayer. The multiplayer options here are somewhat limited, only offering race and party play modes. Races have you and a friend going head to head, trying to finish each level before your opponent. Party play mode is fairly interesting, having you and up to three other friends controlling alternating platforms. The goal in this mode is to attempt to mess up the least, earning you points for correct piece placement. Unfortunately, party play is only available for local multiplayer, leaving two-player races as your only option for online play. While I would have liked to see more options here, the included ones are definitely fun.

Even though this game utterly fails at attempting to appeal to most gamers, Roogoo is still one of the best puzzle games that I've played in a long time. The single-player campaign is fairly long, well-paced, and full of entertaining challenges that will draw you in and keep you playing. The multiplayer options, while limited, are at least fun to play and add a decent amount of replayability to the title. For ten dollars, Roogoo is quite a bargain, as long as you can look past its unnecessarily childish-looking exterior to the exceptional puzzle game fighting to get out.

By Adam Brown
CCC Freelance Writer