Mighty Switch Force! Hose it Down!

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

Hose it Down doesn't have much in common with the Mighty Switch Force games on 3DS. While those were puzzle-infused platformers, this is a collection of simple, single-screened head scratchers.

It's essentially Pipe Dreams - better known as "the hacking minigame in BioShock" - so you're going to be shifting around blocks that have tunnels and bends so you can redirect a stream of water to some fires.

New chapters introduce fresh twists on the formula, but only one - red blocks which can be twisted, but not moved - is successful.

Others, like mud blocks you must disintegrate and shrouded blocks that only reveal their layout when sprayed, are pointless or infuriating.

And the "switch" part of Mighty Switch Force - where you could hit a button to make two types of block toggle in and out of existence - is absent.

The puzzles are gently challenging, and sometimes enjoyable - but it's hard to shake the feeling that this has all been done before.

And few steps have been taken to make sure it's being done any better than previous pipe puzzlers.

It's not exactly filled with content, either. There are just 25 levels which you can get through in less than an hour. Unless you care about solving them again to beat a par time, that is. (I didn't). A further 25 levels are hidden behind a paywall.

It's got the classic WayForward sheen with gorgeous pixel art graphics and bouncy animations, but it doesn't make any effort to tell a story or expand on the world of the 3DS games. The retro visuals are just decoration.

Hose it Down is not the sort of creative and daring game we expect from this developer.

It's a short, uninventive puzzle game that will offer about twenty minutes of enjoyment between the tepid difficulty of the early levels and the bone-headed design decisions of the later ones.