Professor Fizzwizzle - A fun and challenging puzzle game

Aug 03, '06 07:30:03AM

Contributed by: robg

The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 9 out of 10]

If your gaming preferences are on the 'casual' and 'puzzle solving' end of the spectrum, I think you'll really enjoy Professor Fizzwizzle (PF from here on out). PF is a classic two-dimensional side-view game. At first glance, it looks like your typical horizontally scrolling game, but that's not what it is at all. Rather, PF is a massive (230 levels) brain teaser. The game's objective is decidedly simple: get the Professor from his entry point to a specified departure point. To accomplish this task, you can move up, down, left, or right (but no jumping). Of course, nothing is ever simple, and there are typically any number of obstacles between the Professor and the exit -- everything from holes that he can fall into but not climb out of, objects such as crates and barrels, surfaces of sand, grass, and ice, each of which cause differing behavior for both the Professor and objects on those surfaces, and much, much more. Here's a look at one of the simpler early levels (click the image for the larger version):


On the pictured level, the objective is to get the Professor to the blue disc on the left side of the screen.

The game is far from simple, at least for someone of merely mortal brain power such as myself. Things start off easy enough, and you'll have a high degree of confidence at first. But as the levels progress, the complexity of the puzzles seems to increase nearly exponentially. Most levels require a series of tasks to be done in the proper order; get the order wrong, and you'll be pressing R (to restart the level) to try again. This can be a bit frustrating at times, but it's also what makes the game so appealing -- you really need to think your way through it. If you get really stuck, however, the games' menus include a Show Solution option.

There's no traditional scoring in PF -- you won't see Total Points anywhere, nor is there a countdown timer to encourage you to finish a level quickly. Instead, as you complete levels, you'll see a tracker that indicates what percentage of each category (Regular, Advanced, Kids, and Alphabet) you've completed. You'll also unlock sometimes-funny photographs (viewable in a gallery) as you complete levels. But that's it for rewards; PF is really all about just having fun and solving puzzles.

The game's graphics are cute and effective, the sound effects are nice, and the music isn't too annoying (though it's easily disabled, which is what I've chosen to do). About the only downside is that the game window is of fixed size, 800x600, so you can't scale it up for larger monitors. That's a minor quibble, though; PF is great fun, even without 3D graphics or vicious alien races to battle!

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