Price:	$14.95		Reviewed by:	Maya Rozenshein
Supplied:	Binoteq		Review date:	31/10/2004
Pros:	Lovely graphics Challenging and addictive gameplay		Cons:	Fast-forward mode would be nice

Most of you probably remember Winnie The Pooh's (misfortune) attempts at climbing the tree in order to get to the bees' honey. Well, the Bear's Job - Honey Fever by Binoteq is somewhat similar. Yet instead of mere climbing or using primitive balloons for the job, our bear will be assisted by highly explosive bombs in his flight mission.

Bear's Job is a 2D puzzle game. The basic idea is simple - blow a bomb (or a series of bombs, as the case may be) somewhere near the bear so as to make the shock wave rocket him towards his destination. Simple as this may seem at first, the mission is actually quite challenging as the exact placement of the bomb(s) relative to the bear, in terms of both distance and angle, is crucial to the mission's success. Place the bomb too close to our bear and the impact of the explosion will shoot him to outer space. Place it in the wrong angle - and he'll miss his target completely. The bear's flight course is similar to that of a real rocket - abiding to the law of gravity and changing course upon hitting an obstacle. This makes detailed planning quite difficult, and it usually requires extensive trial-and-error method to reach the desired result.

To complicate matters even more, most levels require navigating the bear in a complicated maze-like structure all the time taking care to avoid "black holes" which suck down anything coming too close to them. And at times, as mentioned before, more than one bomb is needed to complete the task, in which case the various explosions have to be also perfectly timed relative to each other. And if that's not enough - there are different kinds of bricks with different impact on the bear when he hits them during his flight or fall, and in advance levels, two bears and not just one have to be taken care of concurrently. Yet fear not – Bear’s Job has a real good interactive tutorial, that should get you up-and-running in few minutes time.

In addition to the challenging and highly addictive game play, Bear's Job boasts lovely sound effects (explosions, glass-breaking etc.) and dazzling detailed Hi-Res+ (320 * 480) graphics, which include scrollable screen windows (for those large complicated levels), changing landscape scenery and animated images. Deservings of special mention are the beautiful bomb explosions, which leave a trail of slowly evaporating smoke behind our flying bear (most useful for adjusting his track).

The overall difficulty of the game seems to be average. Some levels are quite easy, while others might require a real good planning and many adjustments before completion, even the point of frustration. Either way, Bear’s Job with its 100 levels is sure to provide a lot of gaming fun. And as an added bonus, there is also a built-in level constructor with which one can design her own levels of the game.

As for the downside – well, there is not much really. A more exact way to place the bombs or adjust their accurate position would have helped, the stylus drag-and-drop system being somewhat lacking in that regard. And I also miss a fast-forward feature, which might come in handy in those complicated levels where waiting for three bombs to explode just to re-adjust the placement of the forth one becomes a bit tedious.

To sum it up in one sentence – Binoteq’s “Bear’s Job” is a real favorite game of mine, which is as original and addictive as it is beautifully rendered and designed. Highly recommended.