The very first puzzle game I wrote about here was the original Hanano Puzzle. I consider it and its cousin Jelly no Puzzle to be the peak of this school of puzzle design. That lead to both a sense of excitement with the surprise release of this game and the weight of expectations, expectations that it couldn’t quite reach.
There is a tiny devil in the details on the game’s itch.io page, right there near the bottom: Programming, art, and music by Tatsunami. Level design by Lucas Watson. Tatsunami is who I’ve always referred to as qrostar, the singular person behind the original game. The other person is a fan who sent in some level packs that impressed, leading the creator to work with them a bit to polish things up and release it as an officially sanctioned thing.
This is a very nice thing to have done. The problem is that while this Lucas fellow seems to be good at puzzle design Tatsunami is a borderline genius. As such Hanano Puzzle 2 is a very nice puzzle game that has the unfortunate fate of being a twin to something truly special. This is a shame as on its own this is good, a solid 7 out of 10 with its last few puzzles in particular being very well done. I’d recommend it.
Still my main thought is how it, by existing, helps to illuminate what was remarkable about the original. There is fifteen fewer puzzles here and yet it feels like certain ideas are repeated more frequently. The sprouting flowers often created a dynamic element in the original that is almost absent here. It does probably introduce ideas a bit smoother than the original at least, that being a notable stumbling block for many.
Again I feel bad spending all this time being critical of a swell enough game, one that is basically a free gift. Most of the puzzles are good, it is stronger than a number of puzzlers I’ve written about previously here. It just has the burden of that name.