Puzzler World Reviews

Puzzler World is an old but largely entertaining compendium of casual puzzles. It comprises 1120 Challenge Mode puzzles of 14 types (Sodoku, Wordsearch, Hangman, Spot the Difference, Codeword, Crossword etc, but no logic puzzles), grouped into pairs - completing one gives access to its paired puzzle. There are no penalties for failing a puzzle or for using hints (earned by completing puzzles), and puzzles can be replayed without limit. The textual puzzles, particularly Wordsearch And Fitword, dominate, which was a little off-putting for me, as was the one memory game (Picture Quiz), but players who prefer just a few puzzle types can use the Quickplay mode for standalone access to any of 8 types of puzzle. There are 14 easy and undemanding achievements for playing each of the puzzle types ten times. The interface is bold, bright and relatively basic, though handwriting learning & recognition is offered (I haven't tried it). Link-A-Pix (drawing non-overlapping lines between pairs of identically coloured numbers which indicate how long the lines must be) was a particular highlight for me, which would be very frustrating on paper but which worked really well on a screen and with easy options to undo and/or reroute a line. The value for money, at least for me, is without question: 75 hours play for a sale price of just a few UK pounds. Before his retirement more than 20 years ago, my Dad worked in printed publishing in the UK. For decades he was the editor of a long line of children's comics, but his final role was as editor of a set of puzzle magazines (these did not include Puzzler). Towards the end of his career, Dad saw the first tentative steps to utilise IT in the production of comic strips and puzzles; he himself started using an Apple computer for writing & editing scripts, and for creating page layout designs! So, after completing all of the Challenge Mode puzzles, I made some screenshots to show to Dad. We agreed that some puzzle types in this game were, in effect, no different on paper or on screen, a few were perhaps a little more cumbersome on screen than on paper (because of the overheads of the interface), but many were much more attractive in their screen form and/or would be very frustrating or even impossible on paper. So Dad's and my joint verdict is that there is much to enjoy in Puzzler World, and puzzle types which don't appeal can just be skipped without really affecting the value for money.