Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

I recently played the game Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent. It's a computer/iThings game that is also available through the PlayStation Network, for those of you that don't own anything more Apple than...well...an apple, or don't feel like downloading games onto your computer, be it for preserving a dinosaur or paranoia (I don't blame you).

The story delves into the one-man Puzzle Agency sector of the FBI. The lone agent, Nelson Tethers, is called to rural, wintry Scoggins, Minnesota. The Scoggins eraser factory, supplier of the White House's erasers, has shut down after a mysterious incident, and it's up to Agent Tethers to solve the mystery and get a fresh supply of erasers before the President has to strike things out for lack of a better correction method.

As the premise probably suggests, the plot is rather amusing, with characters that personify a quirky little town in the middle of Where The Hell Am I. It's rather short, though, and leaves with only one question answered at the end after leaving another plotstring in blatantly untied view and hinting at several other "wait, WHAT?" points. It's perfect for a sequel, for which there already is -- Puzzle Agent 2 was released by Telltale Games was released at the end of June for computer/iThings.

Since it is a game primarily based on puzzles, and since it is a game, the gameplay, of course, is a serious factor. The puzzle games weren't impossible; I was able to blast through most of them, to be honest, though some took some good thought and there was one towards the end that I got REALLY stuck on (by this I mean "I spent two hours with sleep in between trying to get the damn pattern right"). So, they're not the hardest in the world, but they're good exercise for one's mind. There's a variety of puzzles, from straight out stare at the answers and use logic to a wee bit of math to turning panels in order to make a viable path to the goal. There were also a few jigsaw-style puzzles, where you had to arrange things in a certain way - i.e., at the very beginning of the game, you have to reconstruct a ripped up piece of paper to read a hidden message. Although these sound like they would be difficult, the game has a mechanism where the pieces snap together when they're in the right position, like an online jigsaw puzzle can. This makes it a lot easier, and there was one puzzle (right after the one I got stuck on) that I literally was able to do by dragging one piece around, randomly dropping and collecting until the entire thing was done. As such, these puzzles seemed kind of extraneous, but without that mechanism they would have seemed ridiculously hard.

All in all, the short time I spent on this game was really enjoyable. It tickled and engaged the mind all at the same time.

The Sly Collection + SLY 4?!

The Sly Cooper trilogy has long been high on my list of favorite games. I remember getting the first game, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus...I absolutely ADORED that game. And I remember the high levels of happiness when Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves came out. I loved the styles of the games, the worlds you got to explore in each, and honestly, the gameplay was fun as hell. Learning new tricks and techniques and ninja-ing around was amazing. (I won't lie; throughout all three games I'm more than partial to Sly. I don't really like playing as the other characters...though randomly turning the Guru into a wheel of cheese WAS amusing.) I just loved the games quite thoroughly, they were...I think the way I'm starting to ramble on shows it. They were simply good games.

So now they have the Sly Collection out, and THAT looks pretty cool - I mean, come on, the epic detail and graphics of Sly Cooper...only better. Yeah.

But that's not why I'm bringing this up now.

THIS is why I'm bringing this up now:



According to the footage of this video, they're "possibly" making a fourth Sly Cooper. Which was somewhat hinted at at the end of Honor Among Thieves, if you think about it, it was like "The end...or is it?" in the way it was played out, if I remember.

By the way, I couldn't really tell the first time I watched it, but looking at that lantern over thar...could it possibly be...Japan? FINALLY?

If this is true (and from what people are saying it looks like it probably is), this is awesome. Because...I know they say all good things must come to an end, but if Sucker Punch can work this out, if they can somehow make a good sequel to this, then by all means, they should. They did after the second game, after all - I honestly never saw how they could work that out, and yet, they did. This time it's just as conclusive-looking (at the end of Sly 3 I mean)...or IS it? Sucker Punch really knows their stuff.

I earnestly hope that Sly 4 is true...because I'm looking forward to it already.