Shift Freedom looks pretty straightforward on the surface, but like most platforming flash games, this one comes with a twist. It's not that different than its predecessor, the aptly titled Shift -- with the main gameplay mechanic still being the ability to shift the world around so the floor is the roof and the roof is the floor. It, uh, makes more sense when you're doing it.
The puzzles start out easy enough, maybe even too easy, but as you get through the tutorial you start to learn more about the game and how it works. You learn that pressing down on the keyboard flips your character into the black world, or back into the white, and you learn that by doing so you can explore new areas. By shifting the world inside out you'll need to hunt down keys, flip switches and do all the usual videogame things.
There's a story layered on here, but it's not really important. It's you typical video game story, where your character is in love and she's stolen away from you and, uh, whatever. What's important is the gameplay and the puzzle solving.
Like any good puzzle game, Shift Freedom promotes lateral thinking, and even through it's a fairly strict series of puzzles, you never feel like you're being forced down a particular line of thought. There's probably only one, maybe two solutions for each puzzle, but the game does a good job of making you feel smart for figuring it out.
If you want to give your brain a little wakeup call in between ignoring your email and checking your Facebook, you can do it here.
