If you take a bit of Dizzy, a spot of Riven and add a cast of cute, rusty robots, you get Machinarium.
It’s a beautiful little platform puzzle game for PC, Mac and Linux, which has you take control of a stretchable robot as he wanders through the robot world.
It looks lovely, with seemingly hand-drawn backgrounds that wouldn’t look out of place in a steampunked Arthur Rackham book.
The puzzles are thoughtful and quirky, making you press buttons, collect items and join objects in order to progress through the levels.
It’s funny and cool, and accompanied by a dreamy soundscape that suits its look down to the ground.
Initially you can play three levels of the game online for free, and if you like it – and you will – you can buy the whole game as a download for about £12.
I love it. The people at Amanita Design should be rightly pleased with themselves.
Alex Milway
Children's author and illustrator, Alex Milway has published 10 books: The Mousehunter Trilogy (Faber & Faber) and The Mythical 9th Division series (Walker). His latest book, Pigsticks & Harold and the Pirate Treasure (Walker) is out now!
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I’d completely forgotten about Dizzy but the amount of time I spent as a child on Dizzy games is immense. If this is anywhere near as entertaining as Dizzy its a must have.
It’s got that lovely “pick up an object, wonder what I do with it?” feel. I really recommend it