Puddle

Puddle is relatively brief and can be tackled within a lazy afternoon or two. There’s not much to the game once you’ve gotten through it – other than going back through to unlock in-game achievements and trying to get gold on each of the levels – but it’s fun while it lasts. It won’t set the world on fire, and it can be crushingly difficult at times, but it’s got a ton of nifty ideas and wrings every single drop out of them – and in that, Puddle greatly succeeds.

Playing with water was never so fun in this original puzzle game. Frustration might scare off some players, but those who push through will find a collection of interesting with plenty of variation.

Puddle lacks a tiny bit of personality and features some initially annoying gameplay limitations but manages to hold its own in the long run, past the initial learning period.

Even though the capabilities of the new system are underutilized, this is still a well executed physics puzzler that relies too often on trial & error.

Puddle on the Wii U looks and plays great. It's too bad there is no new content here from previously released versions, but it's still a challenging and likeable physics puzzler.

Puddle is a mechanically sound game that's good for fans of physics puzzles. The presentation is solid, and even though the controls aren't the most optimal, they get the job done and provide enough options.

Puddle presents the fascinating journey of several types of fluids through original levels like a garden, laboratory or inside the human body. It's great, for moments, fascinating, but Puddle's difficulty is too unfairly hard and overcoming these difficulties requires trial and error mechanics.

I was impressed with the sheer amount of variety in the game, but I can't help but wish it were utilized to a greater extent. Puddle looks and plays great, but the difficulty caused by its physics can hamper the experience.

Puddle is an interesting title for fans of the genre, thanks to the originality of the level design, constantly looking for never predictable ways.

Puddle is another strong contender for your digital money in the beginning days of Wii U's eShop. It falters when it comes to explaining all of its elements, occasionally stumbles with difficulty spikes and its motion control scheme is best left ignored, but look past these flaws and you'll find a creative, smart puzzler that flows pretty well while offering a fair amount of variety and replay value.

In the burgeoning sub-genre of physics-based, liquid platformers, Puddle is a game that only hits a little more than it misses.

The introduction outstays its welcome, but Puddle flows into a more interesting game than you might expect. [Jan 2013, p.111]

Puddle is both relaxing and frustrating, and it can be immensely satisfying to play. At times I was excited, and other times dreadfully nervous. If you are looking for a game to tide you over in between major Wii U releases, this one is a decent bet provided you have the patience.

It's still a neat little puzzler for sure, but it needs a bit more tweaking for me to wholly recommend it. If you've always been on the edge in terms of buying this game, this release should tip you, as it's the definitive version.

Puddle confirms the good and less good seen in recent months on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and PS Vita. Good ideas but the result is just decent.

Puddle is a decent game with enough variation and challenge, but is too slow to ever really get exciting and uses too much trial and error. This makes the game more frustrating than fun.

An immediate and extremely usable concept, attractive graphics and an intriguing challenges (albeit sometimes a little too excessive) aren't enough to promote Neko's newborn, still immature in its gameplay in this Wii U edition.

A great idea held by its issues. We really hoped there were some improvements on the Wii U version, but it fails to deliver an engaging experience.