...Then stupid. Then smart again.
I'm hardly the worlds biggest puzzle game aficionado but I wanted to write about two in particular that have really grabbed me recently, both of which give you that smart/dumb/smart feeling. The first is Quarrel, by Dundonian game studio Denki. This was a game that I have been aware of for a long time and I have followed its difficult journey to Xbox Live closely. It was especially hard to see some people I knew lose their jobs there, after the inability to find a publisher for it caused some major downsizing of the company. I'm not an iPhone owner so didn't get to play that version, so I was pleased that it finally made it to the Xbox, for a price so cheap that everyone should really pick it up. At that price I can't see it making millions for them, but I guess now that it might almost be more about proving the point that there is a market for it.
It's usually described as a cross between Scrabble and Risk, which is the simplest and at the same time most accurate way of describing it. While the single player computer opponents aren't bad, you know that their words are just picked from a dictionary at the end of the day. Playing online against real people is obviously the ideal situation and this is where you usually start to encounter the stupid/smart factor. One match you can find yourself dominating and coming up with great words, only to meet someone next match who can make the full 8 letter anagram nearly every time. That or you start to get cocky and take an 8-2 matchup, where you then completely fail to even think of a word and get beaten by the other person no matter just because they made any word. The fact that all words have a full definition given is great for growing your vocabulary and I'm sure every game helps to improve the speed you can think of words.
There are some problems with the online experience though, which are pretty much all down to Microsoft's own word filter that is separate from the list of words allowed in the game. This leads to the hilarious/frustrating situation of words being rejected when they would be accepted in the single player mode, including the 8 letter anagrams. Given that you can abuse people all you like over the headset (and tell people in real time that 'it wouldn't let me type XXX') and I'm sure I've received abusive text messages too, I really don't know why this needed to be applied, especially to what should hopefully be a good natured word game. I really hope that it will eventually see a patch or some kind of workaround as it can lose you matches when you don't have enough time to think of an alternative word.
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| I would probably go for 'foul' here but would I lose to a 5 letter word? |
My other puzzling choice is Pullblox for the 3DS by Intelligent Systems - for once making a non-Advance Wars based attempt at dominating a Nintendo handheld. It is easily the best piece of downloadable software for the device yet, and probably the best original title that I have played on it so far. It's more difficult to think of an easy sound bite description of it than Quarrel, it blends logical thinking with some basic platforming, but also takes on Prince of Persia's time rewinding mechanic to emphasize that perfecting your jumps isn't the most important part of the game. Each puzzle is made of multiple different coloured blocks, which can be pulled out a maximum of 3 units and your aim is to climb to the top to rescue a stranded child.
While some puzzles have one set solution, I liked the fact that you could sometimes improvise and get to the top by any means necessary, which feels like quite a rare thing in a puzzle game. This is especially true when playing puzzles created by other people as the only condition the game has for sharing them via QR code is that they can be completed, not that there is only one way to do it. I haven't really played other peoples creations yet but the standard single player levels are more than enough to cause you to question your intelligence. One moment you will call yourself a genius for figuring out something complex, the next you'll be slapping your forehead when you finally see the simplicity of a solution you've been skirting around for ages. It also stays fresh by introducing all of its features slowly, giving you enough levels to prove that you understood the last feature before showing you something new.
It's a little more difficult to recommend this to everyone if you don't already have a 3DS - I don't think I could quite call it a system seller and while the 3D effect can sometimes feel helpful, it's never essential. However if you do own a 3DS it's a must purchase and again cheap enough that it shouldn't put a dent in anyone's pocket. While Nintendo are struggling to adopt a sensible pricing structure for its handheld games in some respects, this is a promising step when it could easily have been released as a standard £30 game on the original DS.
While some puzzles have one set solution, I liked the fact that you could sometimes improvise and get to the top by any means necessary, which feels like quite a rare thing in a puzzle game. This is especially true when playing puzzles created by other people as the only condition the game has for sharing them via QR code is that they can be completed, not that there is only one way to do it. I haven't really played other peoples creations yet but the standard single player levels are more than enough to cause you to question your intelligence. One moment you will call yourself a genius for figuring out something complex, the next you'll be slapping your forehead when you finally see the simplicity of a solution you've been skirting around for ages. It also stays fresh by introducing all of its features slowly, giving you enough levels to prove that you understood the last feature before showing you something new.
It's a little more difficult to recommend this to everyone if you don't already have a 3DS - I don't think I could quite call it a system seller and while the 3D effect can sometimes feel helpful, it's never essential. However if you do own a 3DS it's a must purchase and again cheap enough that it shouldn't put a dent in anyone's pocket. While Nintendo are struggling to adopt a sensible pricing structure for its handheld games in some respects, this is a promising step when it could easily have been released as a standard £30 game on the original DS.
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