In Lighthouse Lunacy you play a fella named Fred who runs around a lighthouse--actually, along platforms fixed to the site of a lighthouse, jumping from one level to another. The puzzles mostly involve getting boxes to the bottom of the tower--which sounds simply, but actually some of them are fiendishly difficult. Luckily, this is quite a polished game--you have any number of retries, and if you fail sufficiently often, the game will show you the solution.

The puzzles themselves are well executed--the developer is obviously a student of the genre--but what really makes the game shine is the framing device. Fred is quite aware that he's in a video game; he's moonlighting for extra cash, and is employed by "the game designer," a shadowy figure at the top of the tower who makes his life a living hell by facing him with these damn puzzles. Between levels, the two bicker enjoyably with each other--so enjoyably, in fact, that getting to the next such segment is a draw to completing the puzzles.

A sense of humor in games is, alas rare--and when attempted, the humor is often lame. That's one thing that makes Lighthouse Lunacy a particular pleasure.