Girls Inc. TeamUp

Girls Inc. TeamUp is a great little puzzler for anyone who enjoys jumping, throwing or indeed sliding obstacles to get to the next level.

You have three types of girl with their own unique skill, one is able to hop up and down blocks, another is able to slide boxes around one square at a time and the last is able to throw another girl a great distance. The idea is to combine all of their powers to get all the girls safely through to the next level where they will encounter more and more devious and difficult levels for them to solve. What’s more, with 53 levels to explore and conquer, you have quite an epic riddle to solve on your hands.

Controls are nice and simple so you can use either the d-pad or the number pad (although for some actions you can only use the number pad). The board takes a little bit of working out as it’s at a 45 degree angle rather than square-on – so for example, by pressing up means your character will move north-east!

In essence this game teaches you a thing or two about problem solving and quite importantly cooperation – as without it, you can’t succeed! This is a nice touch which in several games is overlooked. I can only think of this programme and the Ice Age series which provide a similar puzzle solving co-op missions. Interestingly enough Girls Inc. are a small non-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart and bold (in other words, empowered! – and we all thought Girl Power died when the Spice Girls broke up!).

The levels that you and your girls must explore all fit quite neatly on the screen and providing you’ve got a big display, shows up in good detail – which is sometimes lower down the developer’s agenda when making puzzle games.

In terms of obstacles for you to encounter, you have walls, stairs, raft, warp-transporters, blocks, rivers, elevators and chutes plus quite a few more for good measure. Needless to say with so many different obstacles and quite a few combinations to get right, you’re pretty assured you’ll be re-playing levels to get yourself through in one piece.

The great thing about this game is you could play by yourself (if you’re a bit of a brainbox) or can play with your friends in trying to solve the problems together (again, this makes this game great for building confidence and interaction).

At the end of the day, this game has plenty going for it to keep you engrossed for quite a while. It will keep your fingers and mind pretty active and although it’s a little infuriating at times having to restart levels to try and conquer them, the characters are cute when splashing in the water (which forces you to restart) and as they’re pretty quick levels, it won’t stress you out too much – unlike other titles which would send you round the twist if you had to start from scratch second time round!

Rating 91%

Positives

Great game for girls

Good puzzle game for anyone else

Fun and very entertaining and pretty addictive too

Negatives

Music’s not too great

Can be quite easy to fall into the water and have to restart levels if you’re not careful

A little repetitive

Quite puzzling even at the earlier levels