Bill's Eggcellent Adventure

Guppy Games--the purveyor of such fine mobile games as Stick Fighter Fury--has traded in martial arts for culinary arts for its new puzzle game, Bill's Eggcellent Adventure. The game's protagonist, breakfast chef extraordinaire Bill Skillet, may not sound like much of an intellectual, but helping him to victory actually requires a substantial amount of logical thought. From what we've played so far, this humorous, barnyard-themed romp should make great fare for puzzle-hungry gamers.

Bill Skillet's on a mission to defeat his rival, Egger Rotten, in the Benedict County Big Egg Fry Cook Off, a silly local contest that no doubt generates lots of revenue for the area's souvenir salesmen. In order to best the competition, Bill has to perform a staggering number of "trick frys" by shooting eggs from a chicken to one or more skillets, without breaking any of the eggs. In order to move the eggs around obstacles and pick up the necessary bread slices, you'll need to deploy gear like cheese wedges, hens, bombs, and barns to the right locations so that you can nail the level in a single shot.

In fact, Bill's Eggcellent Adventure is similar in gameplay to other "hit the target" games like Absolute Light Up and Toxic Lab. This sort of mechanic works well on mobile, mostly because you get to place your pieces one at a time, and this game is no exception. The difference here is that you get a big stock of identical items to build with at the beginning of the level, and you must tailor your apparatus to the environment. For instance, cheese wedges serve as 45-degree mirrors, while hens will split a speeding egg into two new eggs traveling in different directions. Barns are three-way splitters, but these are usually parked somewhere at the beginning of the level and are immobile. On some levels, you'll have multiple colors of chickens and skillets, and you'll need to match them up appropriately.

Mr. Skillet's apparently quite a card; his likeness appears in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, punning on eggs and breakfast every time you succeed (or fail). This goofiness fits in with the lighthearted tone of the game. Every time a rooster crowed at the beginning of a level, we couldn't help but smile, and we liked the cutesy little livestock, too.

Bill's Eggcellent Adventure is currently in the final stages of testing, and it's expected to hit retail sometime next month. We'll be sure to "hash" out a full review as soon as possible (sorry, we couldn't resist).