Archibald’s Adventures belongs to that rare breed of independent games that really touch my heart: it’s a game that takes pride in its simplicity to deliver a play experience coupled with childlike exploration. It all begins with a dare to perform some skateboarding stunts at the junkyard near Professor Klumpfus’ mansion. Our main protagonist, Archibald, performs several fascinating maneuvers before slipping and falling through a dark tunnel into the the professor’s basement. He encounters the eccentric scientist, who tells him that his genetically-warped animals have just escaped, and that his intelligent computer has gone out of control. He solicits the help of Archibald, who just so conveniently happens to be in the right place at the right time. So it’s up to you then, to help guide Archibald as he saves the day, with his trusty skateboard.

The gameplay involves a sweet, nostalgic, platform adventure formula that has been dearly missed for ages. While skateboarding through the professor’s basement, you’ll need to jump over holes, dodge toxic acid droplets, flip switches and avoid menacing creatures. The early levels consist of well-crafted, easy-going platform action, while later levels feature affable puzzle-like level designs — requiring you to plan your route and retrace your steps in order to reach the exit.

Having precision when it comes to judging distance is a crucial skill throughout the game. It’s essential to estimate the space you have before you, in order to build up speed to perform a jump, for instance, or to land safely after free-falling from quite a height. As the game progresses, you’ll also gain quite an assortment of special abilities, with which you can pick and move crates to create new paths, or ride a maintenance pod to roll along the walls.

The lack of ornamentation is part of the game’s beauty, and is more than compensated with its incredible amount of polish. Featuring clean artwork animated at a fluidly smooth frame rate, a pleasantly casual audio soundtrack, and levels created with heartfelt sincerity, Archibald’s Adventures packs over a hundred levels, presented through a family-friendly storybook-style narrative. Oh yes, the polish doesn’t just stop here; it goes to its technical aspects as well. Apart from the provision of joystick and joypad support, the game also runs on both Mac and PC platforms, with a Windows Mobile version currently in production.

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(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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