I have to admit, I’ve outsourced this review of Puzzler World 2012 for Nintendo DS to my girlfriend. Is that generosity – she enjoys a good puzzle book on holiday, that sort of thing? Conscientious – seeking an expert opinion for you, the valued reader? Or plain, bone-idle laziness? Take your pick. Let’s find out what she thought.
So, is it fair to say that you’ve been doing quite a lot of puzzling lately?
Er, yes…
To the detriment of our relationship?
Maybe… I can still talk to you though! The music is quite annoying so I always puzzle with the sound down.
Fair enough. So, what sort of puzzles are on offer?
Pretty much all of the standard ones: word-search, crosswords (of varying types), codewords, pathfinders, sudoku – even silhouettes, which I find pretty pointless as there is no real challenge to them.
But there are less familiar ones too, such as dropzone, where you’re presented with rows of letters and you have to pick one in each row to disappear, in order to form a word on each row, when all the letters above cascade down. (Meh.)
The real winner for me is link-a-pix; this has been the true threat to our relationship. Basically you have a grid with coloured numbers. Pairs of matching numbers need to be linked by a string of squares equal to that number, eventually building up a pixel picture. The pictures get increasingly complex as you progress through the levels. It’s highly addictive – I’ve already completed all of the standard games – about 50 of them – but this has now unlocked a whole load of new master levels, of even bigger pictures. Huzzah!
I rather liked dropzone. Oh well. So, a mix of stuff you’d find in puzzle books, and some that wouldn’t be practical on paper. But is it better than a puzzle book?
Hell, yeah! It has link-a-pix! Seriously though, it is a nice convenient way to puzzle. Not that a puzzle book is all that inconvenient, but you know what I mean. I guess I see them as two answers to my puzzling needs. I still see the pick up and put down appeal of a book, but the electronic version does allow for more interesting games.
It can’t all be good though. What’s the electronic downside?
Well, like I say, with a book you can just chuck it down when dinner’s ready, or if someone REALLY wants to talk to you. With the electronic version you have to pause the game, save your progress, wait for it to save, then you can resume life. You are also limited to saving your progress on one puzzle at a time. This is frustrating, obviously.
Indeed. Can you sum it up in a word?
Jedward?
Thanks, this has been most illuminating.