So I tried a little puzzle game over at Addicting Games, which I soon discovered is definitely overstating some of their titles, including the oddly flawed The Shotgun Princess.

When I first took a run at the young maiden with the heavy firepower, I’d expected an action game, with lots of shotgunning. But what I got instead was a deeply flawed puzzler that I didn’t find to be intuitive at all. Basically, you’re a young woman who doesn’t KNOW she’s a princess. You’ve come home to your hunting cabin to find something very wrong has gone on in your absence, and may well still be going on. You enter your cabin and attempt to solve a series of puzzles based around clicking on things, and making things out of other things.

Sounds a bit confusing, I know–and that’s mostly because the game’s supporting documentation has about as many holes in it as a block of Swiss cheese that someone took a shotgun to. There’s a video walkthrough, but what’s the point in that? I wouldn’t mind a text walkthrough, something I could check in a tight spot, but it’s a little ridiculous that my sole way to make sense of this clickfest gone awry is to watch someone else beat the game first.

Well, they all can’t be good, folks–and this is half my purpose. I’m here to fill you in on the crap just as much as the good stuff.