The Great Tree

Surfing through different casual game developer's pages, I came across Reflexive, which is a very well known name in this industry. This month they are preparing the release of a new game that I promise, will be pretty amazing. Now, think a bit... What's the result if you put games like Monarch: The Butterfly King and Neon Wars together? Well, pretty easy... It's The Great Tree, Reflexive's up to come release.

The story of this game is a pretty elaborate one, which is a good thing. We have so many casual games out there that lack this part. So, imagine an old house, with a chimney in which a fire is lit, a warm atmosphere, a granny and a few kids sitting around her. And so the granny starts to tell the story of the Great Tree.

A world of fantasy and magic, where the fairies live happily, a shadow grows and threatens their simple and innocent lives. A mother fairy takes by the hand her young daughter and starts to explain to her that she must go on a quest and gather pollen. The pollen she must collect will keep the Great Tree alive and that will keep all the other fairies alive as well. But the tree has grown weak and the Swee - those who had that task before her - have fallen under a dark spell of an evil presence. This dark force wants to stop a great and important event from occuring, which will allow all the fairies to live forever. And so, the daughter must set on her quest to gather the magical, life giving essence.

Thus the first level begins. You'll soon realize that on every level, you'll need to collect a specific amount of pollen, which is represented by glowing colored dots that drift across your screen. The pixie control is done with the aid of the mouse. If you wiggle your mouse on the screen, you'll see that she will fly around. This is how you will guide her over the pollen as she will store it on a tail. The thing is that she can't take a big weight and to "fuel" the Transient Star you must make several trips and collect the pollen. As soon as you finish the level you will witness a short animation in which the Star releases the pollen for the Great Tree.

Well, of course, there's a catch too. You can't just fly around and gather the pollen so easily. You will bump into different enemies, represented as bugs. If you do bump into them, you'll lose health and the pollen you gather, so be careful. At one point a frog will come into the scene. Beware, its sticky tongue will put some difficulties in your quest.

But your quest doesn't end here. As soon as you'll start playing you'll see trapped Swee that are drifting on your screen. Your job is to save them as well. In order to do that you must take the Liberatis Spiral from the "hands" of Globulocks that fly around your screen and then bump into the trapped Swee. This time, the game has been kind to you, in these situations you won't loose health or pollen.

You may be wondering why do you have to help the Swee. Well, it's because by liberating them you will get power-ups that are really precious. The Ancient Fire produces a ring of fire that will destroy your enemies. The Lightning Storm is a power-up that must be touched to be activated, but when you will, all the enemies in your range will be struck by lightning.

There are also a few other power-ups like the Magnet, that will bring all the pollen straight in your path, or you can get the Freeze, a power-up that will freeze the enemies in your range for a few seconds. Still, it's good to know that freezing your enemies won't do enough. If you bump into a frozen bug, all the pollen that you gather will be scattered, so be careful...

Now, let's talk a bit about the pollen. Besides being used by the Great Tree, this can be your "weapon" too. This essence will give you points to "upgrade" yourself. With every stage that you finish, you have a certain number of points that you can load on your Health, Strength, Magic or Life. Also, every new stage you'll get a new pair of wings.

The graphics of this game are pretty amazing, clear, clean, beautifully mastered and they truly give you the feeling of a fantasy world in which these tiny creatures exist. If you're tired of swapping colored objects or serving different customers and just want a simple and relaxing game, I suggest you get this one as soon as it comes out!