The premise of an alien creature being stranded in another alien world than its own has been explored plenty of times through popular culture. There’s the ubiqutous (during the time of its release) E.T, Captain Olimar from the video game Pikmin and Tessog from t he Green Lantern comic books.

You can add one more to the list with Sponge Dude from Sponge Dude and the Alien Hippies, Handplant Studio’s latest game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Unlike his contemporaries, Sponge Dude didn’t crash on Earth, instead he was banished there for dereliction of duty (LOL).

The first impression you’ll get from Sponge Dude is that he’s pretty limited in terms of movement, for a side-scrolling platform puzzle protagonist. In other words, you’ll find that the only thing he can do is jump.

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It turns out that to get Sponge Dude (SD) from point A to point B of a level, you’ll need to use the items such as a stroller (to push SD along), bomb (to catapult SD) and even balloons (to make SD fly over obstacles.

Despite having to retry a particular level several times, I realized the Sponge Dude is a thinking person’s game. The physics and the use of items will have you plan out strategies on how to get SD to the end of the level. Bear in mind that the number of items are finite per level.

Sponge Dude represents a level of open-ended challenge that’s different from what I’ve been experiencing lately from indie puzzle games for the iPhone. Sure you’ll still need to get to the end of every level but the means of doing so are only limited to your understanding of the level design and the items at hand. I’ve been playing Maze type games recently, so Sponge Dude is refreshing in that sense.

Both casual gamers and hardcore ones can look forward to Sponge Dude. Levels are bite-sized but hardcore players might try again and again to get the collectible stuff that is present in each level that have a direct effect on your score.

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Presentation wise, Sponge Dude is cool in a simple line drawn way, it wouldn’t look out of place from a colour pencil drawing but it’s nice. Check out the opening menu, it kinda reminds me of Animal Crossing for the DS.

Sponge Dude is currently on sale at the App Store, at a low price of USD 1.99. Check it out over here.