Impressions: ilomilo's "Autumn Tale" DLC

It's hard to not love ilo and milo, the pillow-like duo that absentmindedly become separated whenever they go on adventures. Their Xbox Live Arcade offering was one of the downloadable highlights of the year, with innovative puzzle gameplay and a handmade aesthetic that charmed fans of the genre. "Autumn Tale" is the game's first DLC, and it released today for just 240 Microsoft points. We played it this morning to see if it's worth the purchase.

Your three bucks buys you two new chapters, which amounts to 19 standard levels and six bonus levels. Fans of the original game know that some of the later, more difficult puzzles could take a significant amount of time to complete. Autumn Tale doesn't really reset the difficulty or teach you the ropes from the beginning, as it throws some head-scratchers at you right out the gate. It's nice to see this, as any ilomilo player would probably prefer to get right into the good stuff instead of re-learning the basics of the blocks and gameplay mechanics.

Moving blocks around is still the primary method of navigating levels, and the standard, flying, rotating, extending, and "light box" variety are all back. You won't get thrown any major curveballs in terms of gameplay, but some of the bonus levels throw in clever twists. You'll see one of them below, and it requires you to hit switches and move boxes in an effort to get two of the pig-like creatures on the same block. Once they're frantically pacing around the right grid, one of them will hit a button that removes the roadblock between ilo and milo.

Because most of the music and visual goodies were given away in the original game's levels, you won't find as many records or photographs scattered around these stages. However, the tiny Safka creatures are back and are still the means of unlocking bonus levels. You can blaze through the standard levels without rescuing any of them, but you'll effectively shut yourself off of a good chunk of this DLC.

Autumn Tale doesn't go heavy on the narrative side of things, opting for some brief text-and-picture screens that briefly tell the story of the titular duo becoming (surprise!) separated. There is a new autumn-themed aesthetic in place throughout these levels, which is a bit odd considering the release timing. It's heavy on oranges and browns, and you'll see the occasional firefly buzzing around the levels.

This DLC doesn't reinvent ilomilo by any means, but it offers a few hours of extra gameplay, a new look, and three new achievements for just three dollars. If you enjoyed the original experience even a little bit, there's no reason to pass up more great gameplay in Autumn Tale.