Walkabout

Sometimes, grid-based puzzlers are in danger of becoming so complex that the appeal of having something accessible to dip in and out of is destroyed.

Walkabout, despite being unlucky enough to share its name with a chain of bad Australian pubs, manages to keep things simple enough to play sporadically, yet remains challenging enough to keep you pleasantly stumped from time to time.

One foot in front of the other

The concept is basic: you take control of a cartoony character on a grid full of stars. As you move around, the ground falls away behind you, meaning that you can never pass the same route twice.

This forces you to plan your route carefully in order to collect all of the stars and complete the level.

The controls work well, with simple directional swipes guiding your character. Thankfully, it’s rare that you'll foul up because of an unresponsive swipe, though the game would definitely benefit from a single-use “undo” button.

As it stands, you have to restart the level as soon as you realise you’ve screwed up. However, this is a pretty minor complaint and the level always restarts quickly.

Walkabout becomes slightly more complicated - but only slightly - when multiple colourful characters are introduced and you have to switch between them.

Walk before you can run

While it is a simple game to control, it is by no means a walkover. The difficulty ramps up quickly.

By the 20th level (of the total 64), you'll have the ancient art of chin stroking down to a tee. If you are to able to find the hidden keys underneath certain tiles, you can unlock even harder bonus levels.

And if you’re particularly persistent, you can challenge the omnipresent timer and go for a high-speed finish for the always coveted three-star rating.

Walkabout doesn’t try too hard. Things never get convoluted or frustrating, but the puzzles are almost always thoughtful enough to solicit multiple tries, which results in a surprisingly long lifespan.