Mr Buckethead

Everyone has goals they'd like to achieve when it comes to their career. Whether they're based in fantasy (I personally maintain that I will walk on Jupiter one day, gas or no gas) or are as plain-Jane as simply aiming for that promotion at work (so you don't have to make coffee for the entire office every single morning), they all motivate us to keep showing up wherever we ply our particular trade, week day after week day.

Well, for those of you who have always dreamt of working at a Tetris factory (and I'm sure that number is many) your day has come. Yes, Mr Buckethead is your dream ticket into a world of coloured blocks, of all shapes and sizes, and by taking up the game's challenge, you're the guy – or, rather, bucket – charged with making sure the right Tetris blocks get sent to the right people. Doing so means working through short levels, picking up the correct colours and blocks along the way.

Each level comes with a time limit and a specific order to fulfill, delivered by a little mail icon at the beginning of each level. The aim is then to complete that order, sourcing the right colours from paint pots littered on each map and picking up the right number of shapes before time runs out. Beyond the opening encounter, each contest grows more and more demanding, and each map more and more trying.

With the clock counting down, controlling the bucket is fairly simple in premise but a little more difficult in practice. Mr Buckethead uses fairly standard controls – '4' for left, '6' for right, and '2' to jump – but places them in a rather tight setting. Levels themselves consist of various ledges with both the shapes and paint dotted around, often in hard to reach places. Being a bucket himself, Mr Buckethead can't jump very high and speed isn't really his forte either, so Mr Buckethead very quickly becomes a case of making snap decisions about where you need to go in each level and going for it, lest the clock run out on you.

That said, it can still go wrong even if you happen to pick the right route. Mr Buckethead's near immobility means that you often need to judge your jumps exactly, otherwise you'll miss your target. While this doesn't result in death, it does mean you can waste vital seconds simply trying to make your way. Even when you are on track, there are various traps designed to make you falter.

One of the most common interruptions is paint. For example, if you're charged with picking up a solid yellow, letting a red or blue into your bucket by walking under dripping paint or kicking over a pot will mix your colour and affect your end of level rating or, if it discolours your palette completely, mean you fail the level. There are also more standard beasties that patrol each map - rats and worm-like creatures, for instance - that, when touched, also release paint of their own. A bonus if they happen to splurt out the colour you're after, but a disaster if not.

Things get trickier when the orders become a bit more complex. With paint only coming in the form of red, yellow and blue, when orders for non-primary colours come in you're required to mix up a combination of said primary colours to complete the order, which can often be more complicated than you might think. Try and mix an orange, for instance, and let a drip of blue fall into your bucket, and it's tarnished.

Some of the levels also act as mazes, with ledges or underground areas only reachable by grabbing hold of latches that can lift you up, down, sideways and even diagonally. These latches themselves can prove a bit of a struggle, zipping around as they do, meaning – again – it's a question of timing your approach to them perfectly.

Doing so requires a game with an expert control system and, sadly, this is the one area where Mr Buckethead comes up a little short. The nature of the levels means that quick and precise movement is essential, but by having the buttons to jump and move so close it's very easy for your fingers and thumbs to clumsily hit the wrong key or miss them entirely in the heat of the moment. This wouldn't be an issue if this was a slow game with no time limit, but the ticking clock in the corner means that even one mis-step can lead to failure and frustration.

That said, your hands do adapt to a certain extent, and Mr Buckethead has both the charm and the accessibility to pull you through those moments. Though very short on instruction and perhaps a little confusing initially, each level is bookended with summations from your boss that offer both encouragement and disdain in equal doses, depending on your performance. If that wasn't enough, the game also allows you to upload your score to an online database, meaning you'll forever be attempting to better yourself for all the world to see.

And Mr Buckethead is perfect for that kind of snacking; short and sharp bursts of fun that you can either get addicted to or tap into if and when you feel like it. It's full of flavour and packaged neatly in a very small file perfect for your delectation. Yes, there's room for improvement, but Mr Buckethead has merit enough to warrant applying for a job at a Tetris factory, whether it's your dream role or not.