Handle With Care

Some jobs are more stressful than others, especially those that are dangerous for those involved, such as being a police officer or a fireman. On the other hand, other jobs are stressful because they put you in situations where you have to take care of incredibly valuable objects. Guarding them is not a huge issue, but it’s quite another thing to move them around.

Handle With Care is a funny arcade game in which you play the role of a museum employee as he is tasked with moving a couple of expensive artifacts. There’s no actual story and no characters to worry about, but the gameplay is very smooth and enjoyable, not to mention funny. Thus, it’s a fairly short experience, but it it can change your mood for the better in a couple of minutes.

Each object needs to be taken to a different part of the building, and the way there is obviously filled with various other expensive items that are awkwardly placed on shaky platforms. It’s important to keep your balance, because the character wobbles from one side to the other in a random pattern, and there’s not much you can do about it but try to compensate.

The only penalty for breaking items is the fact that your score decreases little-by-little for every bit of damage. You can increase the score by successfully moving the quest items, but that’s obviously easier said than done. Speaking of which, it would appear that there’s no way you can drop the object you are carrying, so the only worry is not to hit anything else while you are walking around.

The graphics are not bad, but don’t expect an awful lot in this regard either. However, the controls are the most important element, because they decide your fate throughout the game. Hence, you must use the mouse to look around and the classic WASD layout to move, but the only option at your disposal is to walk and try to compensate the random sidesteps.

Handle With Care won’t go down in history as a genre-defining game, but it can easily show you a good time and change your mood for the better. Hence, it’s worth a try if you want to relax for a bit and have a laugh.