Droplets Review

The best aspects of Droplets are apparent immediately from its title screen. As soon as it loads, you are hit by twinkling, ethereal music and somewhat-clunky, blocky and retro-cute graphics. Droplets bears the stamp of MTV Networks, and this initial presentation immediately made me think of the days when MTV actually, gasp, showcased music as its primary product.

While the rest of Droplets isn't bad, the presentation does represent a high point. The actual game involves using your mouse to drop cute, rabbit-like characters from the top of a screen to the bottom. The goal is to use the wind, gravity effects and objects in the stage to collect carrots, which give point boosts of 200 each, and to land them on designated areas of the ground, also for points. Each stage has a score requirement that you have to hit to move on to the next stage.

Once you “drop” your rabbits though, you don't have much control over them. Clicking the mouse makes them “anvil,” a la a Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon, for lack of a better term. While anviling, your rabbits sink quickly and are less affected by the wind and explosions.

This is frequently useful, but since this is the only control you have over your rabbit, it leads to frustration. This is what the difficulty of Droplets derives from, but the result was that I felt more like an observer at times than a player. At times, I was reminded of the “crane game” you see in movie theatre lobbies and at carnivals. “Hmm, now where should I line up my claw (rabbit) in order to snag the stuffed Alf doll (carrots)?”

For what it's worth, I did derive a good amount of pleasure from these presentation aspects. The blocky graphics and exaggerated character animations are quite appreciated from my perspective, and the music is on-par with classic puzzler Tetris. It is the same sort of engaging background music that spurs you to give the latest directionless stage another shot, if only to hear the theme for another couple of minutes.

As a result, Droplets has a sort of personal breaking part for each player, depending on how much you like this sort of puzzle game and how charming you find the graphics, sound and characters. I checked out after about 20 stages and three hours of gaming, although your mileage might vary.

The good

The bad

70 out of 100

Stephen Greenwell