Glover Review

You've probably never played a game like Glover before. One part 3D platform game, one part puzzle game, one part basketball game, and one part just plain weird, Glover puts you in charge of (you guessed it) a glove. You have at your disposal a magic ball that you can bounce, dribble, throw, and even transform at will into different shapes for different uses. You wander around from world to world, solving puzzles in an effort to get your ball safely across obstacles.

There's a lot to like about this game, namely its originality. I mean, who would have thought of a glove for the main character in a game? The graphics are appealing (but a bit dull like so many other N64 titles), and the soundtrack, if not up to current standards, is certainly not grating.

The only reason why Glover falls flat on its face (or palm) is that the play mechanics will quickly frustrate even the most avid lover of puzzle games. Succeeding in the game requires that you toss or bounce the ball into tight spaces with razor-sharp accuracy, but the ball reacts so differently each time you toss it that you can never be sure where to aim. To the credit of the game's developers, the real problem with the ball is that it behaves too realistically; in the real world, the unpredictability of where a ball will go when you throw it is half the fun. But when you're playing a puzzle game, this uncertainty becomes a major hassle instead of a source of excitement.

All of this doesn't mean that you should necessarily avoid Glover. If you have a lot of patience and like challenge in your puzzle games, you may get a lot of gameplay out of this title. Be sure to rent it first to find out just how patient you are.