Interview with Christian Donlan

Chris has written about videogames for Edge magazine and Eurogamer.net, where he was a features editor. He is also the author The Unmapped Mind, a memoir about fatherhood and multiple sclerosis, which was shortlisted for an English PEN prize and was published as The Inward Empire in the United States. He was born in Los Angeles and now lives in Brighton with his family. His favourite videogame is Robotron: 2084 – give it a go!

Chris ON handheld launch puzzle games in ON: Volume One.

What's the best puzzle game ever made?

Chris Donlan: That's a nice question! It's Lumines, if you ask me, which you probably shouldn't. Actually, it's Lumines: Electronic Symphony. There was something about the way that game looks and fits on the Vita, and the fact that the musical selection really feels like a single person's favourite music. It's like one person's record collection. The whole mega-cube thing was delightfully odd, and deep at the centre of it all is a game design that I genuinely believe is timeless. I didn't mention it in my article because it didn't really fit, but yes: bury me with that game.

What makes handheld games consoles and puzzle games such a lovely combination?

Chris Donlan: So many things, but there's something wonderful about playing a really odd, abstract thing on a handheld gadget. It's got that Tricorder impulse from Star Trek. You could be playing Columns, or you could be scanning space for alien artefacts. 

There's also the where of it: you can play handhelds on the train, on the bus, in the library, sat up in bed, and these are all excellent places to zone out with a puzzler. The last aspect is the sheer amount of time you end up playing puzzle games in one go. They pull you in. There's something about really getting to know a new handheld by putting dozens of hours into a puzzle game that just feels right - it's why you need one at launch ideally.

Of all the games you look at it your article, which is the one you'd most like people to try out?

Chris Donlan: I think Gunpey probably. It's not my favourite, but it opens the door to a lot of very cool, interesting stuff. Stuff like Gunpei Yokoi, and the WonderSwan. I feel like that game leads directly to eBay. It also just doesn't look like many other games - there's something really distinct to its approach, like you're reading a seismograph print-out or something. Gunpey makes you feel like you're picking up a skill.

Can I pick two games actually? Kuru Kuru Kururin is one of the favourites of ON's Andrew Hind, and it's such an ingenious, maddening thing. You control a baton, basically, that revolves as it moves, and you have to kind of shrug your way through these chicane-like levels. It's just gorgeous stuff.

Do you still look for the puzzle game during launch line-ups?

Chris Donlan: I do, not that handheld launch line-ups are likely to be super regular anymore. I definitely do, though: I really feel it's the first chance to get a sense of the personality of the new machine. And sometimes, quite weirdly, the game that gives me the puzzley feel isn't always a puzzle game per se. I feel like Housemarque made the closest things to launch puzzlers for the PS3 and the PS4 with Super Stardust and Resogun. There's something about a game that's compact but also endless and that isn't chasing the kind of things that other launch games are often chasing. It's magic.

Read the full feature in ON: Volume One: