Game Description: Right in time for Halloween horror; with Halloween just a short wait away you’ll love this game! As it combines the traditional Halloween objects and puzzles to create an amazing game and experience for the user! Here’s the description from the developer “Use Gravity, Fire and Fast fingers to remove the rotten pumpkins in this spooky Red Remover Halloween special! Your goal is simple – remove all the black and rotten pumpkins while keeping the fresh ones on screen. As you progress, however, the levels will become increasingly challenging and your brain power will be tested to it’s limit! If you like physics puzzlers, such as Cut the Rope, Super Stacker, Red Remover and Bubble Cannon – Pumpkin Remover will be right up your street. And if you really like a challenge wait until you unlock the secret mode.”

Pumpkin Remover 2

I thought that this was one of the easier games that Gaz (also known as “TheGameHompage”) has made; I completed the levels so effortlessly that the game didn’t seem as puzzling as it’s earlier installments. Usually one or two levels get at me and I resort to using a walkthrough, but this game was different and required little effort from me to compete them. I would have liked to see more complex, puzzling levels, but I guess this game is aiming for a more “fun and easy” status than an actual puzzling one. I admit, the game was fun, I enjoyed it a lot in actuality; I loved all of the chain-reaction events, but the difficulty just wasn’t there.

There were a couple new features in Pumpkin Remover 2, that differed from its earlier installment. My favorite new feature were the flaming pumpkins, which when ignited they could light more pumpkins on fire, This is in reference to the chain-reaction events. Most levels contained the flaming pumpkins, which create interesting situations early on in the game, as some of the levels would require precise timing (since the pumpkins were only lit for eight seconds (if I remember correctly)). In addition you can also unlock a “secret mode” which I have yet to achieve, but is only mentioned in the iPhone and iPod Touch version of the game, so I don’t know if it is only obtainable in one version or another, or both. (Just to note I am playing the Flash version.) The gameplay was a bit different, Pumpkin Remover 2 relied a lot more on chain-reaction plays, based on the flaming pumpkins, rather than the single moves that your previously performed in the earlier installment Pumpkin Remover.

The visuals were amazing! I loved the simple, bold colors that the artist used to illustrate this unique and interesting world that could take on several planes of gravity. The image to the side is actually from the iPod Touch or iPod, but as you can see the blocks seem a little bit pixelated. That is literally the only problem I have with the game’s art, the rest of it is amazing and flawless. Obviously these pixels are almost impossible to avoid, but a little touching-up here and there could have fixed that. This is not a problem in the Flash edition, since there is noticeably differences in the execution between coding a game in HTML and C++ (and all of those other crazy coding programs) and AS2 or AS3, which could have altered the appearance of the graphics. Besides, the small pixelation issue, the game was beautiful. One of my favorite parts of the graphics were how the black pumpkins lit on fire and had this neat little flame animation!

Surprisingly there was no music included in the Flash version of the game (note that I haven’t played the iPhone or iPod Touch version). i would have liked some sort of music to be included, preferably something peaceful and relaxing. It felt like there was something missing in the game – like a hole and I think music would have filled that hole and make the game feel more complete. There were hardly any sound effects, but there was nothing to really add sound effects to, but I would have liked to hear some sort of fire sound effect (like the crackling of the fire). Overall, I would have liked to have seen some sort of music to go with the game.

Because of how easy and un-complex the game was, (in my opinion) there wasn’t any real difficulty ramp. I had noticed that the game’s difficulty dramatically spikes at the last level, which is kind of like a boss level, in which it requires much more effort than any of the previous levels. Although, for the previous nine-teen levels, the game seemed too easy, which is a majority of the game. I would have liked more levels to be introduced in the Flash edition to increase the difficulty. As for the iPhone and iPod Touch version, I am not sure how the developer handled the gameplay and difficulty ramp. I believe, as the developer has noted, that the iPhone and iPod version have more levels and a secret mode. I wouldn’t be surprised if that game had a better difficulty ramp. Overall, the difficulty ramp for the Flash version didn’t really progress into the climb that I would have liked to see, making the game more and more challenging.

The replay value was an interesting relationship, because technically there were two games, the iPhone or iPod Touch version and the Flash version. Overall, the paid version had more replay value obviously. The Flash version (free) didn’t contain much replay value, I would have liked to see more introduced into the game, such as in-game achievements or high-scores. Although, the Kongregate API was established, which allowed users to complete with their specified scores, such as the number of levels that they completed under par or simply the number of levels that they had completed. All in all, there wasn’t much replay value for the Flash version, but there seems to be a lot more levels in the iPod Touch and iPhone version, which will definitely keep you busy for a while!

In conclusion, Pumpkin Remover was an amazing puzzling game that will keep you around for a while as you attempt to complete all twenty levels. In review, the game was too easy in my opinion, I believe I believe I completed all twenty levels in under ten minutes (although in the iPod Touch/iPhone version there were a lot more levels). The difficulty ramp wasn’t very apparent, the levels were continuously too easy, except for the last level which dramatically spiked the difficulty ramp and took a couple of retries to complete it. The artwork was terrific and i enjoyed the simple, bold colors. I would have liked to see some sort of background music, the game just seemed awfully quiet and I didn’t like it. IN addition, I would have liked to see more sound effects, maybe the pumpkins bouncing off the surfaces and other things. The replay value wasn’t too high, but the Kongregate API was in effect and allowed a coupler of high-scores to be submitted. All in all, Pumpkin Remover was a truly amazing game; you have to play it, especially with Halloween right around the corner!

[Play Pumpkin Remover on Kongregate - 20 Levels]
[Buy Pumpkin Remover for the iPhone or iPod Touch - $0.99 - 40 Levels + Extra Modes + Accessories]

[Play Pumpkin Remover on Kongregate - 20 Levels]
[Buy Pumpkin Remover for the iPhone or iPod Touch - $0.99 - 40 Levels + Extra Modes + Accessories]