I'm "currently playing" 3 games - Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure, Project Sylpheed and Battlefield 1943. Oh and the tales of Monkey Island but I'm probably not going to talk about that much. Our mutual friend has already talked about it enough I think.
So Henry Hatsworth. Which is - if you're not already aware - a DS platformer with a block-matching element that has a non-traditional old-fashioned british gentleman for a hero.
With pipe and trilby, Henry would be charming and innovative if Professor Layton hadn't come along and totally won forever the title of unconventional gentlemanly hero. Compared to Layton, Henry looks like a boorish cad with the manners of an uncultured baboon. Which is unfortunate - we are a long way from upper-crust gents being as common as space marines in games, two coming along so close to each other seems a waste. And they are different - Henry is more a broad caricature of a Victorian explorer whereas Layton is a far more complete character.
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Also Henry has a whiff of corporate-controlled eccentricity to him - "Let's just have some crazy goofball character like a totally british guy, cos the kids, they like the crazy" kind of thing. But they're both male, be-hatted, under-stated and genrally more civilised than your average game character so comparisons are inevitable. And the similarities don't end there - they also both have a small boy apprentice with a cap and a cheeky attitude. Who is annoying but a neccesary counterpoint of impetuous youth used to highlight the aged wisdom of the main character. I guess. There must be some reason for them.
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Moving on to game play however, Henry couldn't be more different. It basically applies the puzzle quest idea to a platformer. As you move through the original Mario-type 2D levels on the top screen a set of coloured blocks gradually moves up the bottom screen. When you kill enemies they go into the puzzle to become grumpy blocks. If these grumpy blocks move up enough to reach the top screen they come out and try and crush you. To prevent this at any time you can switch between the screens to do a bit of block matching to get rid of the grumpy blocks and generally keep the level down. The same thing happens to power-ups - you find them in the level then they go into the puzzle. If you match enough blocks you unlock Henry's robot suit - slightly spoiling the Victorian gentleman explorer image - and making you invincible for a short time.
The game is fine - I suspect the problem is that I hate platformers. I'm not a careful person. I have little patience for cautiously timing ducks to avoid lasers or precisely landing jumps on moving platforms - I like to rush in, guns (or walking sticks) blazing. It's generous enough with the save points - if you die you restart a little way before you fell or at the start of a boss fight. If you run out of lives then it's back to the start of the level with 4 lives. There's also balancing in the form of replaying old levels for cash to buy power-ups in the shop. The game gives me every chance - I feel churlish for saying I find it frustrating and repetitive. However I do -I'm sure it's all my fault though. I just get to a stage - probably the stage where you can no longer get away with just running through pushing buttons randomly - where I just get into a cycle, I die, I'm annoyed so i'm less cautious, so i die, so I'm annoyed etc etc
The puzzle element helps - it means I have another recourse to recover health, damage enemies etc. It also adds a new twist - but in the end I can't get over my stumbling block of hating platformers, so overall I can't say it's the best game ever. Also, though character is really not a vital part of a platformer, Henry grates so badly after Layton - it just makes me long for the next Layton game.
Hmmm - have to be honest I kinda hoped I'd come across a theme as I was writing. Sort of thought I'd have a thought and then restructure the post to reflect a general point. Didn't happen. Sorry about that. Next up is Battlefield - let's see if anything jumps out.
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