I spent the last few days at a conference discussing serious games, meaningful play, and games as a medium for change on the individual to the global scale – and I spent every spare moment playing this small piece of fluffy, juvenile,  mindbogglingly engaging entertainment.

Lock’s Quest reminds me of nothing so much as Puzzle Quest: another fantastic casual game couched in a tepid, RPG-inspired story. I defy anyone to care deeply about narrative in Puzzle Quest, but for Lock’s Quest the plot line somehow manages to feel necessary. Thin as it is, I still need a reason to go from town to town, defending against the ever-increasing hordes of clockwork monsters. I haven’t finished the game, but I can easily assume that Lock and I will save the day in the end; more interesting than that standard hero’s quest is the world itself, where buildings come and go at the will of super-architect/engineers, or Archineers, and living machines – not robots, not cyborgs, but clockwork men – ravage fields and forests alike. The style of Locks’ Quest is cute, easy on the eyes, and it fits the casual nature of the game, but a piece of me would like to see it done, harsh as this is, for real. I’m serious. Drop this world in the best tech we’ve got, let the designers from Hellboy 2 and Iron Man go at it, and really scare me with a grounded, adult treatment of intelligent scrap-metal come to life in hordes. You could do wonders with a world like that on the big screen, and not just visually (remember Terminator 2, anyone?). This handling is an adorable waste.

Still, Lock’s Quest makes for a pleasant, coherent whole. As much as I’d like to see some of its odds and ends translated up, the game works, particularly on the DS. Simple, sweet, and presented in bite-sized chunks of gameplay, it’s an easy game to fall into in terms of mechanics but not content – so when a stewardess comes by, or you reach the front of the line you’re standing in, it’s not difficult to turn the game off. Call it shallow immersion: I’m entertained but not engrossed. And sometimes, that’s all I need.

Some minor problems that would get to me if I took the game more…. well, seriously: that NPCs aren’t intelligent enough to get out of your way and can actually prevent you from achieving mission goals if you don’t realize this; that too many systems are great ideas that weren’t fully implemented, like the tedious siege stages or the fascinating but out-of-place reverse-engineering of each turret and trap; that the precision of Lock’s pathfinding, or even of the object or enemy you’ve “clicked” on, leaves much to be desired…. This isn’t a deeply flawed game, but one that could use a bit more refinement.

And yet, I’m still playing it. I wonder why the game wasn’t advertised more thoroughly. In many ways, it’s another tower defense game, yet toss a “Mario” or a “Metroid” in the title and this could have been a must-have for the season.

At the least, it’s taught me that yes, indeed, repetition can be fun. It’s no Shadow of the Colossus, but Lock’s Quest made me think, even if it was only to wonder why I didn’t feel much like thinking.