You control your fairy by the mouse, moving it around the screen, picking up pollen and avoiding enemies. Collision with an enemy takes away a portion of life; when all portions are gone, it's Game Over. For the most part, it controls well, though there are the occasional moments of getting overexcited and moving the mouse beyond the borders of the game window (if you're playing in Windowed Mode) and temporarily losing the tracking. If there are a bunch of enemies flying around, even a few seconds of immobility can be fatal.


The enemies, all insects of various types, each have their own predictable movement patterns, and learning these patterns is the key to success. Some of them move across the screen in straight lines, some in sine waves, some more quickly than others, some more erratically than others. There's no way to predict when an enemy will appear, or at what height, so constant vigilance is the order of the day. Enemies might appear singly or in groups. Some are tiny, while others are large. After enough levels, the screen fairly swarms with them, so it's best to take a wider view and try to see the whole playfield at once.

There is another element to TGT to consider, and that is the plight of the Swees. A Swee is an insect-like creature imprisoned in a green bubble. When freed, a Swee will release a special ability in the form of a symbol that must be picked up. These abilities vary in function: one will freeze all on-screen enemies; one creates an impenetrable shield around your fairy that kills any enemy that runs into it; one attracts nearby pollen to your ponytail, and various other effects. Needless to say, these abilities are important weapons in your arsenal, but even better is the fact that freeing a Swee adds to the Free the Swee running quota. When a quota is fulfilled, a star is given, which can be redeemed to increase one of your fairy's stats: Agility, Health, Strength, and Magic. Leveling up each of these grants bonuses that make your job a lot easier. For example, leveling up your Magic stat will increase the chance that a random enemy will drop an ability when killed, meaning much more damage done to the mobs over the course of a game.

It's not entirely clear how or why, but at various points during gameplay and between levels you'll be awarded the use of different wings for your fairy to equip. These wings offer different powers, like bonuses to your Strength or Agility, allowing you to carry more pollen or to increase your movement speed, respectively. This is a nice way to keep the player engaged and likely will help during the later levels.

If all the activity weren't enough, there is a points multiplier to consider. When you deposit pollen, a multiplier begins to add up. It increases with each deposit, but that means frequent return trips to the top of the screen, and a concomitant longer time until the end of the level. There's really nothing like keeping your head full of a lot of moving elements while at the same time hearing your hard-won multiplier chime down to nothing -- it adds that extra bit of frenzy to the proceedings.

On top of all of that, later levels will introduce environmental enemies to distract and harry your fairy. One such threat is a tree frog that shoots out its sticky tongue when you get too close to it. Fortunately, all it does is take a portion of life away, rather than trapping you against it, but it's very easy to forget that frog is there while you're watching all the movement of the other enemies. Other environmental enemies include a snail that releases poison gas and a Venus Flytrap that bites.

The Great Tree is more fun than its premise might suggest. Some people hear "fairy" and turn off, but if you can get past the window dressing, there is an exemplary arcade experience awaiting you, courtesy of Reflexive Games.

Download The Great Tree Demo [Windows]
Download The Great Tree Demo [Mac]