Heart Star review - A charming and engaging puzzling platformer

There's a lot to like in Heart Star. It's a clever puzzling platformer that puts you in control of two different characters. One of them is red, one of them is blue.

The aim of the game is to get them both to the yellow torch safely. The red character can only stand on red or purple platforms, the blue on blue or purple.

You switch between the two characters with the tap of a button. And it's from there that things start to get interesting.

The platforms that you're leaping on aren't the same for each character. And sometimes platforms one can stand on, the other can stand on as well, but only when you're playing as them.

But you can stand on the other character's head, essentially turning them into a platform to help you reach hard to get to places.

You can carry characters around as well, which is especially useful if the floor is covered in spikes that are going to kill one of them and not the other.

The game adds new ideas as it goes along. There are buttons you need to push, gates you need to open, and all manner of other things that are trying to kill you.

But the puzzling core remains the same. It's solid, it's smart, and when you figure out what you're supposed to be doing you'll give a little cheer.

Sometimes the controls do get a little bit fiddly, but it's in keeping with the retro vibe of the whole thing, and it's unlikely to annoy you too much.

All in all this is an excellent game of reaction and head scratching. It's not quite twitchy, it's not quite a full puzzler, but the blend it presents you with is an interesting and engaging one.

There are some annoying adverts, and some other bits and bobs that might grate, but at the end of the day you're going to have a lovely old time bouncing around its single screen levels.