Game: Grab Lab
Genre: Puzzle Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch (also on iOS and Android)
Publisher/Developer: Forever Entertainment
Price: € 4.49 | $ 4.99 | £4.49
Age Rating: EU 3+ | USA E
Release Date: 10th January 2019
Review code kindly provided by Forever Entertainment
Time Travel messed up
Grab Lab’s scientist seems to think that Time travel is a piece of cake until it all goes terribly wrong and their time machine explodes. Things have also gone wrong with their laboratory, gravity and the weather….basically everything is wrong in his world.
Guess this is where you come in and help this bewildered scientist find all the missing parts of his time machine. That means gathering and putting together metal nuts. and vials and such.
Leading them away from danger
You have to guide our protagonists through more than 100 levels in this arcade puzzle game where gravity is out of whack. Avoid spikes, rotating saws, locked blocks and all manner of traps to stop you on the way.
The character you control just keeps walking into every sort of danger. A grappler pops out of the top of the head of the character and they are propelled to the wall the grappler hits. Sounds a bit sore on the head to me, however, it does work well.
Everything is controlled very easily by the touchscreen ( you can use the controls ): tap the screen to make your character grapple above them. Once they hit the ceiling, they will change the direction they are walking. The grappler grabs whatever it connects with depending on your timing. So good timing a wall, bad timing a spinning saw, ouch! If you miss to time your tap well it usually means death to the character and you start again.
Putting the nuts and bolts together again
Collecting vials and the important nuts of the time machine along the way, the levels are simple at the start of the game. It’s increasing in difficulty as you progress through them. Once you have completed all the levels in one world and have collected the correct amount of nuts you move on to the next world.
I have not come across anything yet that I’ve been unable to solve and at this time I’m over halfway thorough the game. Some are tricky puzzles which sometimes take a few playthroughs to complete, but isn’t that the fun of gaming? Other than that there has been nothing frustrating about Grab Lab. It’s one of those pick-up and play for a short time sort of games, very suitable for the portability of the switch
Colorful graphics in this pick up and play
The graphics are bright and colourful, the music is the usual arcade fare. It gets a bit repetitive but suits the game along with the sound effects.
In some levels, you will find a new character to be rescued, once you have done that they are transferred to the Laboratory where you can mix characters to make new ones using the vials you have collected. Pop a character into each pod and pay ten vials and receive a new character. It’s a fun addition to the puzzle levels as it gives you a new character to control. Not that any of them do anything different than grapple, but still.
Conclusion for Grab Lab
For the few pounds this game costs, I would say it is worth a download. There is fun to be had working out the right way past launchers, lifts, jellies and other deadly obstacles!
Going back to a level to collect a nut you missed the first time around or finding one of 34 characters trapped somewhere in a level or even playing around in the lab making new characters will definitely keep you busy and good luck with your timing of taps,
I have to say Grab Lab has grabbed me ( yep pun intended 😉) and I like it a lot.