You play as Henry Hatsworth on the top screen, exploring several uninspired worlds in average platforming sections. The twist is that when Henry defeats enemies they are sent to the bottom screen to become blocks in what is essentially the game Puzzle League (which some of you may know as Tetris Attack). These blocks are slowly rising to the top screen, and if they reach it, they will respawn into the platformer. Pausing the game lets you play puzzle league and destroy these blocks first, killing the enemies properly and providing Henry with the occasional power up.
It's an average platformer combined with a good puzzle game. So why not an average score then? Because somehow Hatsworth is better than the sum of its parts.

This is because by blending two genres Henry Hatsworth is one of the few games which is able to have a puzzle game and a narrative work together in a simultaneous package. This is effective because finishing a games story is one of the biggest hooks a game has to keep you motivated to keep playing. This is not a bad thing. A fun game is more fun when you are looking forward to seeing where the story goes or just because you enjoy the humour in its cutscenes (the latter applies to Hatsworth, which features some great, genuinely funny dialogue).

Couldn't you just assign your own story to a puzzle game using your wonderful imagination? Tell yourself you're stacking the blocks in Tetris because they represent the rise of capitalism and you're just a corporate shill building towers for your uncaring master only to overthrow your Billionaire overlords with the long thin line of social justice even if it inevitably leads to economic collapse! Well no, that doesn't work because any puzzle game with a story is inevitably awful as I just demonstrated with that last sentence. That's because the link between a puzzle and a narrative is virtually non-existent. There's yet to be a great novel about the Rubix cube for a reason.

A platformer however, is much more suited to an in game narrative, and Henry Hatsworth's tale is a charming one. Slight, yes, but with plenty of character and ridiculousness (Henry is a dashing English gent and the scripted clashes with his nemesis are always a highlight). So even though it's not a great platformer, and you literally pause the platformer sections to play the puzzle sections, it works because you can enjoy the puzzle gameplay and be enticed to keep playing by the furthering of the story and the completion of the platformer adventure.

Now while this is effective, it only just works. Henry Hatsworth hasn't got the most engrossing story in the world and the gameplay is far from perfect. But it's still great fun and highly addictive, without the weariness you get from playing the average puzzle game for hours on end. Try it before you buy, but if you're a fan of puzzlers and wish they were a bit more than just a break from more complex, story driven games then this might just be the title for you.