Half Head, Full Heart - Henry Halfhead Review

Developer: Lululu Entertainment | Platform: PS5 | Playtime and Platinum: 3:20

After the wild success of Super Mario Odyssey and it’s CAPture mechanic, it’s a genuine wonder indie developers didn’t hop on the idea. Sure, enemy possession isn’t a new concept, but no one seemed to do it like Odyssey. Queue Henry Halfhead, which swaps out enemy possession for items, which proves its biggest strength and weakness.

You play as the titular Henry, a halfhead who can take control of nearly anything in his environment from Scissors to TV Remotes to Ovens. The game takes place over 5 stages, various parts of Henry’s life from infancy to his winter years, all narrated by a charming Swedish(?) man. Less Stanley Parable narrator, more a loving parent.

Each level takes place in a white void with some permanent architecture to help set the scene – a kitchen counter, a garden space for a couple of examples. Everything else is fair game to play with and might be relevant to the checklist ofobjectives. It’s not quite as bad as it sounds, there’s usually a couple primary objectives and you can figure out the best way to solve them. There’s some cool interactions with items that usually lead to a trophy but there’s some that are just there for fun.

That’s where the problem comes in, very soon you’ve got relevant items mixed up with the fun props and things become a bit of a nightmare to navigate. I think this was made worse by playing n co-op but not caused by it. It turns a relatively simple but very charming little puzzle game into a prop hunt which can be frustrating.

Henry Halfhead is a charming but simple puzzle game that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome but also doesn’t use any time to develop it’s main mechanic beyond the rudimentary basic. It’s well presented and fun and I suppose that’s what makes it worthwhile for it's brief runtime.