‘Easy to learn but hard to master’ is a well-worn phrase applied to many different facets of day-to-day life. It can encompass games, activities, hobbies, social etiquette, anything really. In fact, when I think about it, you could almost apply it to any form of human endeavor. Apart from maybe Chemistry, which is hard to learn from the get-go, and possibly the game ‘Catch’, which is simple to learn and relatively easy to master. ‘Hide-and-Seek’ probably falls somewhere in between. Yet, in all my years of human activity, I had never discovered something so fitting of the phrase until I picked up Breezy Leaf, the new pixelated bundle of addictiveness by OI games. It’s new, it’s out now for iOS, and it’ll engross you quicker than greased lightning. Which you should never pair with dried leaves.
So, the object of the game is to keep a leaf in the air. He’s a little brown leaf with an innocent little face, and it seems his very life is on the line here. The only control you as the player are afforded, the only lifeline standing between the little leaf and damnation, is delivered via a leaf blower. It’s positioned at the bottom of the screen, and doesn’t move; you tap it to produce the potent gust that will sway the leaf this way and that as he falls towards you. The screen doesn’t move, the leaf follows the same downward, floaty trajectory. You have to keep him up. Got it? Good. You have learned how to play Breezy Leaf.
The difficulty factor lies in the sensitivity of the controls. Never have I encountered an iPhone game that requires such finesse! You have to tap the blower to produce the right amount of air; simply holding it down will result in instant defeat, as the leaf sharply spirals out of the top of the screen. If you lose sight of the leaf, or if he falls past the scope of your blower, that’s it, the jig’s up. It’s an infuriatingly simple mechanism which produced endless amounts of attempts. There’s no set up time at all, you can launch into another round in milliseconds. It really is addictive stuff.
The graphics and sound are gorgeous, rendered in wonderfully nostalgic 8-bit pixels and sounds. It looks like a game that could’ve been released on the original Game Boy, possibly as a secret level or bonus round on a Mario outing. This one is well worth checking out if you’re a fan of these addictive little wonders; the cool graphics give it a distinctive edge, while the simple mechanics will have you engaged for many a game. Easy to learn but hard to master indeed.
Float your way over to the App Store to uncover Breezy Leaf for free today!
