Review of Super Slyder

Astraware has brought many great games to the palm OS platform. Their latest game is Super Slyder, a puzzle game in which you slide your piece across the game board to reach the goal. I have been playing this game for two weeks and I love it! It may sound easy, but its not. Along your way, you will meet new friends, enemies, obstacles, & dangers. Many palm addicts might be familiar with this game through its pc version or its pocket PC version.

Overview
When you first begin, you will notice that you have the option to have four saved games. This is nice if you are trying to keep a low score. You can practice on one saved game and then make your official moves in another saved game.
After you have set up a player and are at your first maze, you can control Slyder with the stylus or the d-pad on your palm device. I like the last option because it means I can completely access the game from my lifedrive without removing the stylus. I really liked this feature.
Player experience
Things you will notice about Super Slyder are its colorful and sharp graphics and some "slyding music" which is sure to attract attention to your palm device. ;) Each character has an unique sound effect as it moves or is bumped. Characters will also close their eyes or make a sound when resting. Little things like this make a difference in games. It adds to the user's experience and I found it fun just watching and listening to the characters. OK, so I'm easily entertained. To me, details are what makes great games.
Puzzles
I found many of the puzzles challenging and many easy. What I mean is that, if I took the time, I could usually figure out the way I needed to go. However, the challenging part was doing so in the shortest amount of moves. I didn't excell here. Most of the time, I would be in the 40 and 50 move counts. Lots of miscalculations and such. I like the bigger puzzles rather than the smaller ones. On those I usually get over 100 moves or so. :) Another neat trick is you will come across puzzles with obstacles like ceiling tiles, missing outer walls, and such. I cannot tell how many times I slid right off the game board because of a missing outer wall. Overall, the puzzles proved to be thought provoking!
Pros/Cons
My biggest pro for this game is the ability to use your d-pad to control the game. I find this a must for games and I wish Bejeweled would have this feature. My biggest con to the game is just the opposite, you cannot access the menu by using the hard buttons or the select button. On my lifedrive, I can just tap it with my thumb, but I would imagine other users may have to pull out their stylus. I have been using a preview copy so maybe they would add this to the release copy.
Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed playing Super Slyder. I'm on level 143 and am hoping to finish soon. I'm also close to 2500 moves. I may wear out my d-pad with this one. Right now you can pre-order Super Slyder at Astraware. So why don't you just slyde right on over and check it out. (I couldn't resist the pun! ;)

Joshua Burdick - Associate Writer (Buffalo, NY, USA)