Pushmo
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Engaging and affordable puzzler, with great replay.
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Pushmo
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What’s It About?
Each stage in PUSHMO, an innovative collection of blocky conundrums, is a tower composed of several sliding parts. Players control a pudgy, blushing sumo wrestler with a cute, cat/rabbit-like face, who pushes and pulls pieces forward and back to create steps up to each tower’s summit and rescue kids stranded there. The catch is that you have limited room to move about -- the field is just three spaces deep -- and you can’t pull pieces onto the blocks on which you stand (though you can sometimes tug blocks forward by gripping their sides). Pushmo comes with about 200 spatial stumpers gathered into themed groups. You can also design your own puzzles in a simple stage editor and then create a QR code that can be shared with other players.
Is It Any Good?
Pushmo is one of the best original downloadable games yet for Nintendo’s fledgling stereoscopic handheld. Its puzzles are satisfyingly easy to understand yet often quite challenging. No small amount of lateral thinking is required in order to solve all of the included conundrums, which only become trickier as new elements such as warp holes and switches come into play. Add in a dash of simple platformer-style jumping action as you move from one block to another and you have a truly and unexpectedly compelling little experience.
Gamers can expect to spend at least a few weeks working through all 200 brainteasers if they move at a casual pace; a great value for a game that costs just seven bucks.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the ways we solve puzzles in the real world, from figuring out the best route to a distant location to stacking dishes in limited space in a cupboard. Do you think puzzle games like this improve your reasoning skills?
Families can also discuss the notion of authoring puzzles. How do you go about figuring out what might be a challenging but fair test of someone else’s abilities? Do you work backwards from a solution, or start from the perspective of the person who will solve it?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo 3DS
- Subjects: Hobbies: building, Math: measurement
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: analyzing evidence, logic, solving puzzles, Tech Skills: digital creation, using and applying technology, Creativity: imagination, making new creations, producing new content
- Available online?: Not available online
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release date: December 16, 2011
- Genre: Puzzle
- ESRB rating: E for (No Descriptors)
- Last updated: August 29, 2016
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