Having fun with Gerbils, oh how rude!

When I discovered the internet in 1997 I was a washed with amazement at the vast amount of content. Some highlights included; discovering Napster for the first time or being asked if I wanted a penis enlargement, wanted to buy Viagra for my limp dick or whether I wanted to dabble in some Prozac but was probably rat poison. All great highlights of the inter-webs but none so more than stumbling across a website (by accident, or was it?) where a woman decided to insert a tube in her Vagina and let a Gerbil crawl in. So, it’s with that introduction that I would like to apologise for my sick minded, down right blue nature that I even felt the need to mention this at the beginning of our review of Gerbil Physics. However, if the name of a game title gives me a flashback, then it cannot be helped!

How did they get in those blocks in the first place

So, hopefully you’ve had a chance to dabble yourself in holy water and clean your mind from a vision that would get the campaigners against animal cruelty in a tizzy fit. Thankfully, Gerbil Physics by Pencel Games is a clean crisp game that can be recommended to all ages and all genders. The name of the game is to de-construct stacks of Gerbils by detonating, pulling and disintegrating them from the playing field. To be precise, you have to get them below a certain level of height to be successful and move on to the next level. As the game name suggests, this takes into consideration physical properties of the gerbils that are trapped in cubes, balls and triangles.

The opening of the game seems very easy, but fortunately, Pencel thrown in some interesting properties into levels 4 to 24 by adding in rope and disintergration tools. Couple this with Gerbils that are made of stone and red coloured Gerbils that cannot be touched it adds real dynamic game play that provides stupendous value for 80 Microsoft points. In one level, we needed to pull the stone blocks with a rope, to release a flurry of round Gerbils so they would roll down a gradient, a final bomb would then need to be used to propel a Gerbil into some collectable tools to re-supply the amount of bombs and ropes that were on offer to replenish your hopes of completing the level. The game requires a trial and error attitude which provides a decent challenge, but not to a level that it gets frustrating. I especially like the levels whereby there are red Gerbil towers thrown into the mix, at all costs you need to avoid hitting these otherwise an alarm bell will ring and you will have to start the level again. A nice touch, as you’ll have to think very carefully about trajectory and placement of the bombs to ensure they clear the danger area.

Explosion from hell

Some games like this fall foul of having a difficulty spike that could take your eye out. Thankfully Pencel have realised from others mistakes and have ensured that the 24 levels are gradually increasing in difficulty throughout. Graphically this game has a nice art style, the characters are nicely animated along with the menu screens and the background art for each level is endearing as it appears to be hand drawn. The audio is very good too and made by the legendary royalty free supplier Kevin McLeod. Sound effects are once again pretty spot on, though the sound bytes for the Gerbils sometimes sound like they’ve been touched on the clitoris. Do Gerbil’s have clitorises? Damn internet video! Anyway, I digress what we have here then is a great action puzzle game that whilst on the short side cannot fall under criticism because of its price point. The game has real polish and if it was a longer title could arguably be amongst the heavy players on XBLA. Pencel should be proud of their creation and also take our review at face value, because unlike like so many over Indie games that get the review treatment here; Gerbil Physics has appeared from scrutiny unscathed. Look no further than to spend your MS points shrapnel, you won’t be disappointed.