Cado Hands-on Preview

Damn you Gravity, you Win Again!

If I’m honest, I’ve got a love-hate relationship with games like Cado. Now, I do love a good physics-based puzzler because generally they’re perfectly suited to pick-up-and-play or on-the-go gaming. But I also sort of hate these addictive little blighters as they unfailingly begin devouring every second of free time I’ve got. And then some!

I’m currently hopelessly hooked on ClearCut Games’ upcoming title (thanks for the test build guys!). A straightforward premise belies how compelling and downright challenging Cado actually is: basically, what you’ve got to do is guide a little ball – the titular Cado – through an up-in-the-air environment and into a portal in order to complete each level. En route, there’s also deadly spikes to be avoided and a star to be collected.

The gimmick here is that rather than having direct control over Cado, you have to grab and rotate the level itself. Using onscreen directional arrows to swivel the level from side to side, the idea is make sure Cado doesn’t drop off the screen as he falls and tumbles toward the exit point. This gripping gameplay mechanic coupled with a wholly convincing physics system and some fiendishly inventive and nicely varied level designs makes for an irresistibly addictive little puzzler.

The test build ClearCut sent over featured 40 playable levels, with another batch labelled ‘coming soon,’ so rest assured this title will come packing quite a bit of content upon release. That said, I’m still hoping to see some manner of Openfeint and/or Game Center integration make the final cut, as I reckon leaderboards and achievements would help boost this one’s longevity no end.

Interestingly, Kiloo, the folks behind the fantastic Frisbee Forever, are also involved with this project on an advisory basis, so take that as a sign of the quality you can expect from Cado. If you fancy giving an early version of the game a whirl, head on over to Kongregate, and you can keep up to date with the latest Cado related news and get involved with beta testing the game on ClearCut’s official site. Have fun!

ETA: tbc