A three-parter for today!

ButtonHunt

ButtonHunt is a game with a very simple premise -- there are 30 levels. In each of them, there is a red button. You must push the button to advance to the next level. In some levels, this is as simple as locating the button and clicking it; in other levels, you have to solve various puzzles to reveal the button. None of the puzzles is particularly hard, so this shouldn't take you very long.

The sound effects are pretty minimal, and the drawing is not particularly great. But my one complaint is that the interface is not particularly consistent. Sometimes you have to click and drag objects, while sometimes you click to pick up an object and then you just have to move it. This can be pretty frustrating when it's obvious what you want to do but not at all obvious what you need to click to get it to happen. Also, sometimes when you've picked up an object, it's not at all clear how to put it down -- this was a source of frustration more than once. Most of the puzzles just require thought, but there are a few which require quick reflexes.

Overall, this was a cute little diversion, but really not challenging or interesting enough to be a great game.

ButtonHunt 2

ButtonHunt 2 is pretty much more of the same. 30 more levels, 30 more buttons. There's a timer now, to measure your overall progress, so you can have high scores. Overall the puzzles feel a little meatier, but the annoying interface problems are still present (though the problem of dropping things doesn't seem to be present in this one). The last puzzle is also extremely annoying, unless you look at the description which says to hold down the mouse button, which makes it somewhat less annoying. Like the first game, for each ten levels you complete, you unlock a small little secret.

ButtonHunt 3

ButtonHunt 3 is pretty much more of the same. By now, a lot of the puzzles will look pretty familiar; in fact, the notes admit that at least one of the puzzles is a direct remake of a puzzles from ButtonHunt 1, but even leaving this aside, there's a lot of concepts and ideas repeated from the first two. The game now tracks both your overall time and number of clicks, and you can receive achievements for meeting certain standards on both. There's also a very simple hint system, which I suppose is useful if you're having difficulty with a particular puzzle, although once again the difficulty level is pretty low. The interface is still as frustrating as ever -- sometimes you click, sometimes you click and move, sometimes you click and drag, and it's never clear which you need to use. (In one level, it even switches between "click and drag" and "click to pick up and then move" for the same object!) Thankfully, there are no reflex-based ones in this one.

Once again, this is kind of entertaining, but it's really pretty light fare.