Item - Lightning Rider

We have a twist on the gamebook format. You're not a warrior, superhero, or wizard. You are a messenger. You deliver post. The trouble is that you work on a mountain range. The fog beneath the mountains is deadly, so everyone lives at high altitude.

Having a sarcastic bird companion is fun, but meaningful as he is a true friend and colleague. The second half has you deliver post all over the mountains, going backwards and forwards. The funny thing is that sky pirates are mostly harmless, whereas some local residents may try to kill messengers!

Now, the big selling point of Usborne Adventure Gamebooks is the puzzles. They get more difficult over the course of the adventure. They start with an obvious task to figure out an object to use from the description. The last puzzle, should you go down a certain path, is to find a certain number of objects to fix equipment, which I still haven't figured out.

In between, the puzzles go from obvious to tough. In one of them, some pirates make you work out which is the real postbox, but your only clue is the very small logo on each one. Another puzzle is one of the usual mazes that need you to count things on the way to turn to the secret entry. One puzzle even has a clue where the villain's guards discuss how arbitrary the security system is when relying on strange numbers.

One more thing. One puzzle, the one about figuring an object out, asks you to add up the numbers of all of the other objects to find the secret section, instead of turning to the number on the object. How awkward, but I guess it helps children learn mathematics.

It's a good story and game.

More reviews by R-Alex-J