Parent's Guide: The Adventures of Shuggy - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Part incredibly difficult puzzle game, part pixel-perfect platformer, The Adventures of Shuggy is a game that, while it's perfectly suitable for young children in terms of content, has a difficulty level that makes it anything but. It's a game that gets very hard, very quickly, and as such, parents should beware when buying this for their children.

There are over 100 levels on offer here, each of which presents you with a different puzzle to solve. Some are fairly straight forward, but almost every puzzle you face will need to be solved in a different way. There are numerous different mechanics on offer here, and each level is vastly different to the last, from rooms that offer you the ability to rotate the room on the right trigger, to rooms that records your moves, and after thirty seconds, create a ghost version of yourself which follows your original path through the level, which kills you when you touch it, but is incredibly useful for holding switches open.

It's a game that requires a lot of thinking, a lot of forward planning, and a lot of patience, with many of the puzzles likely being too hard for younger children. In addition, it also feels unnecessarily unfair - the puzzles themselves are hard enough, without the annoying enemies that home in on you, and kill you with ease.

In terms of questionable content, there's nothing in The Adventures of Shuggy that parents should be concerned about. Shuggy "dies" when he touches an enemy, or an object like spikes in the world, at which time he disappears in a puff of green smoke. He has no attacks, and so can't kill enemies.

There *is* a co-op mode here, which is playable both in local multiplayer, and online, but we can't honestly recommend it. While the single player levels are tricky, the co-op's the spawn of satan himself, and will have you chucking your controller at your TV in a matter of seconds.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360