Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: This inventive puzzler looks similar to multitudes of other puzzle games out there, such as Orbox B or Cubeoban. The difference in this is that you aren’t simply pushing a cube around, but have a ball that bounces off of cleverly placed angled mirrors. The ball starts on the square marked with an ‘S’ and you must maneuver the mirrors so that the ball bounces through the course and collects all the blue coins and then exits the course on the square marked with an ‘E’. On most courses you can start the ball bouncing around and then manipulate the mirrors to guide it where you want to go. However, some levels require you to map out the course in advance because once the ball starts all mirrors get frozen in place.

Each mirror rotates in one of two settings and you can change the angle right before or after the ball hits it to get it to go in a new direction. Some silver colored mirrors are permanently fixed in place. However, each level features unique ways of utilizing the fixed mirrors. In some levels, the silver mirrors stay put altogether. In other levels, a button my auto rotate all the fixed mirrors or they might just rotate on their own at random intervals. To add to the puzzling mix, you will sometimes have other obstacles, such as blocks that move in certain directions when the ball hits them. Each level has a seemingly different strategy involved in solving it.

This puzzler features progressively more difficult levels and each level comes with a passcode so you don’t have to start over next time you play. I found the first 8 or 9 levels pretty easy to get through and then things get a little tougher. The game mechanics feel smooth and responsive and the puzzles aren’t so tough or frustrating that you will give up right away. In fact, they sort of make you want to keep going. Because the courses are contained with boundaries, you don’t have to worry about flying off the edge of the course or ‘dying’. The ball will sometimes get stuck in a holding pattern, but on most levels you can just keep flipping mirrors until you get the ball where you want it to go. On those few courses where your ball gets stuck in a permanent loop, you can always start over by clicking on the start square. This will reset the course to it’s original position.

Review: If you’ve ever enjoyed the “Where’s Waldo?” Books or any other children’s book where you have to locate a specific object in a scene of several hundred objects, you will enjoy this game. The designers of this game put themselves into it as tiny little pixel art characters.

The screen has at least a hundred little characters standing around. You must move a huge technological arrow (that looks like a big computer chip) around the crowd, trying to pinpoint the one designer indicated at the bottom of the screen. All the other people will skirt and side step from underneath the arrow because they all apparently avoid technology. The lone designer will stay put. But this lack of movement doesn’t always make them any easier to spot. Often times the designer you seek will stand behind a group of people and make themselves quite undetectable.

Sometimes you can spot them right off the bat. But, this usually happens out of luck or the fact that they have a distinctive color shirt on. Other times, you will spend quite a long time milling through the crowd looking for that one person who doesn’t wander away from you. If you find the designer within the time limit allowed (which seems rather short), you advance to a new level. But, if you click on the wrong area or run out of time, you have to go back to level one. Luckily the game will allow you to continue searching for the designer even if the timer runs out. The levels don’t really increase in difficulty and often you will have to find the same designer several times in a row. If you have the eagle eye to make it to level 20, you will get rewarded with “God Like” status.

The game doesn’t have too much variety, so most players will tire of it pretty quickly. However, it definitely has the same appeal as a ball of string might have to a cat…irresistible to play with, but won’t capture the attention for too long.

Review: You will either love this game or hate it. There are hundreds of different online jigsaw puzzles and this one doesn’t have much to offer the genre other than the challenge of putting together progressively harder jigsaw puzzles which are completely blank. The first puzzle consists of about 12 pieces and it super easy to complete, with each new puzzle the board stays the same size, but the number of pieces increases and the size of the pieces decreases.

As you get to the 10 x 12 puzzles or higher, it becomes harder and harder to see when pieces line up correctly. So you may have to try pieces in different places to finally complete the puzzle. Some people on the comment board for this game obviously find the task tedious, boring or a strain on their eyes. Others find it a fascinating time-killer. I think the game has a definite appeal for those who like to solve jigsaw puzzles just to solve them and who aren’t mainly concerned with completing a final image.

Each jigsaw game online features different mechanics. This one doesn’t rotate any pieces, so the puzzles will always orient the pieces in the correct direction. You can arrange and stack the pieces outside of the solving area, but all pieces start out laid out in a grid, so you can easily see all of them. Additionally, any piece will automatically snap into place on the board even if it doesn’t fit with the adjacent piece. This makes it a bit more difficult to solve the puzzles, as you may assume two pieces fit together when they actually don’t. Most of the time you can tell when pieces don’t quite line up because of the gaps and thicker edge lines. However on the smaller puzzles, you might have to really squint your eyes to figure out which pieces don’t match. Finally, one disappointing aspect of the game lies in the fact that you can’t move completed sections as a unit, so you have to painstakingly move each piece one at a time to adjust a section.

I docked this game points mostly because the majority of players won’t have much patience to continue with this game past the first few levels. But, I enjoyed playing through it for a while. The game offers enough of a challenge and seemingly doesn’t have an end to the number of levels it includes. Eventually the pieces will get so small you can no longer solve it. Luckily, the game will save your progress as long as you always play in the same browser, so when you’ve had your fill, you will be able to pick up later where you left off.