Pixel Puzzles 2: Birds Reviews

Pro and Cons at the end for those of you who don't like reading Ahh, another serving of Decaying Logic's Pixel Puzzles. This is my second review of a Pixel Puzzles game, my first one being Pixel Puzzles: Japan. I had to give that one a thumbs down due to some glaring issues within the game but with this version I was pleasantly surprised. So, if you love jigsaw puzzles then sit back and I'll tell you a story about how Decaying Logic isn't living up to their name but perhaps should learn what their publisher’s name, KISS Ltd, stands for...... First let me begin by saying perhaps I was a bit harder judging on this one. I went in looking for mistakes, expecting them, wanting to find some. To my surprise there are very few and this tells me that perhaps Decaying Logic is listening to their fans and that makes me take notice. When you find a developer that cares about what their fans think and makes honest attempts to make their games better you'd better keep an eye on them because they will be going somewhere soon. The first thing you should know if you've never played any of their other puzzle games is that the pictures in this one are as good as you get with any jigsaw puzzles. There's actually quite a few more offering within this one than in Japan as well. All the pictures in this one fit the "bird" theme so if you’re not a fan of birds I suppose it could be off putting but I'm not going to knock the game for that. The pictures give you quite a bit of challenge in terms of matching up pieces by color but it's not entirely impossible. It gives you a good sense of working a physical jigsaw puzzle on the tabletop. Again in this version the pieces are cut in ways you could never truly cut a physical jigsaw puzzle so that added challenge is left intact which I enjoy. Many of the cuts in this one match the bird theme as well with birds and fish around the edges of the pieces. These funky piece cuttings can raise the difficulty of solving the puzzle up to some frustrating levels but overall I feel it's a positive. Some of us enjoy great challenges. The pieces still once again "swim" in a pond around the main puzzle. This is an innovative and interesting way to present the pieces and probably gives you the best representation of "shaking the puzzle box" as you will ever find. So far the game sounds the same as the last, my review does as well. So where did they get things right?? I'm about to jump right into that lake of beauty.. For starters there is now an auto save feature!! It will save all pieces placed correctly on the puzzle if you turn the game off or even if you start another puzzle and come back to that one later. This feature alone is enough to bring this review to a YES but wait, there's more.. The puzzle pieces now float around the whole puzzle, giving them more room to spread out so you can hunt for that one piece you know you need easier. This plus a seemingly better piece selection tool has practically removed the old issue with needing to click through millions of pieces to get the one you want. The puzzle area is smaller now but to make up for this there is a zoom tool that will enlarge the puzzle to your full screen and still let you move around pieces you have deposited up there. They also added an option to open up a bottom "sorting area" that runs along the bottom of the screen where you can put pieces you find that you know go somewhere but haven't figured out yet. And finally you can now rotate the pieces. That's right, just because you pull em out of the water doesn't mean that's the direction they go. Just one more thing added that makes this feel like a real table top puzzle. So far they've fixed many of the problems that the previous puzzle games had and even added a few fan requested features. This certainly makes the game much more playable and enjoyable and gives it a much deserved "yes" rating. However, as much as Decaying Logic went against their namesake and actually improved their game, there's still room for them to improve and learn that KISS (name of their publisher) stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid." So where are the flaws?? First off the pieces now actually look like they are under water. It's a neat effect but it discolors the pieces and makes it harder to pick them based on color matching. It's not game breaking but I now find myself picking up a piece and having to hope that it's a match for the color I'm looking for. Might have just been easier to keep those pieces floating on the surface the way they were in the previous games. Second flaw is that they've now got the controls floating around in the water with the pieces and they get a little annoying. First off they get in the way of piece selection and second off they are subject to being missed when I try to click them and I pick up a piece instead. Once again, not super game breaking since there's hot keys but perhaps just grouping them into the bottom or top corner, or better yet, having them slide out when the ESC key or another key is hit would have been better. So at the end of the day is this version of Pixel Puzzles better than the last?? The answer is a resounding YES. This is the one I would recommend to my friends. This is the one that gives us features we needed in the other ones. This is the ones that prove Decaying Logic listens to their fans. I'm a fan now. Can't wait to see what the future has in store for us with this line...... Now if we could only convince them to do one that can have fan made workshop puzzles....... Pros: +Good picture selection gives good challenging puzzles +Interesting piece cut-outs +Improved piece floating and selection +Rotating Pieces +Mid-puzzle save feature +Optional sorting area +Innovative "hint" system that gives you options +More puzzles than ever before Cons: -Nothing but bird pictures -Colors on pieces are altered while "in" the water, making it harder to select pieces based on color -In-Game Menu buttons float around with the pieces and are sometimes difficult to hit without picking up a piece

Pixel Puzzles 2: Birds is a jigsaw game with a particular theme: birds. The goal is to rebuild a picture of them to unlock more puzzles. If you're familiar with Japan and UndeadZ, nothing is really changing: the pieces are floating in the water, the more you advance, the more puzzles with a big number of pieces you'll find and the forms are different. There is a new mechanism for getting some bonus: you have to catch crabs. Also, you have a bonus level on the TV interface, which is nice. Anyway, I've enjoyed this game less than the other three (I'm counting Anime in it as I've played at the time of the writing). I suppose it's due to the fact that it's real pictures and not drawing or with effects like in Japan. However, you wanted birds, you have all kinds of them. If you like jigsaw puzzles, go for it.

it's more challenging than some of the other puzzle games because of how you can rotate the pieces and the things that appear on the board as part of a separate challenge. if you like puzzles and are tired of the easy boring ones, this is a good game to keep you focused

An enjoyable birth themed jigsaw game with 25 jigsaws ranging from 60 to 350 pieces. However you are probably better of solving the puzzles in [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/577403/Jigsaw_Puzzle_Pack__Pixel_Puzzles_Ultimate_PP2_Birds/]Pixel Puzzles Ultimate[/url] instead of the standalone nowadays. The DLC is the same exact price there and the UI maybe a bit better. If you own this game you should get the DLC there for free.

This is the third Pixel Puzzles game that I own and it's one of the best of the series, along with Undeadz. The rotation mechanic is great and I hope to find it in future Pixel Puzzles games. Pros + Rotation of puzzle pieces! = higher difficulty + 25 puzzles (significantly more than Japan/ Undeadz), longer gameplay ~16h total + Fun tile edges e.g. bird beaks (as in Undeadz) + Ingame bonuses: sorting tray, shuffling pieces +/- collect crabs for your hints + Menu small bonus: minigame, art gallery, instructions + You can access easily puzzles with a lot of pieces and return later to smaller ones (unlike in Japan/Undeadz) Cons - birds birds birds photography, no sketches, paintings etc (unlike Undeadz) - annoying detailed texture background for the puzzle (cliffs with water) - somtimes too similar to the puzzle pieces - ads in main menu for other games

I am extremely disappointed in this version of pixel puzzles. I played Pixel Puzzles: Japan and thoroughly enjoyed it (outside of not being able to easily click the piece you wanted). Seems they fixed that with "Birds", but the background is so horrible I cannot see the pictures. In the pond area where the pieces are floating, there are 6 buttons floating around getting in your way of seeing the pieces plus one ginormous fishing net where you are supposed to drop crabs - that are annoying and run all over your puzzle building space. When you fill up the net, you are supposed to get an award, but they don't seem to work and the crabs have now completely obscured the puzzle pieces floating "below" the net. It is hard enough locating the pieces you need, because they are all mostly blue and they are "under" the water, altering their color slightly, so it is hard to pick the piece you want. There is an option to put a little staging bar at the bottom where you can store pieces, but that also has a craggly, rippled background (as does the building area) which really plays havoc with your eyes. Also, when you put that little staging area there, the pieces floating above the building area are hidden from view. You have to take that away to "find" them again. I tried to take a screenshot of what I am talking about, using the F12 key, but that too seems to be broken. I am so annoyed that I purchased this. It is not fun at all; It is not relaxing at all, and I do not want to play it at all. Boo - hiss devs. Took something great and made it something I'm sorry I purchased.

I liked Pixel Puzzle Japan the best. The koi were a little annoying but you could stuff one in the spout and end the annoyance. I played the Zombies butI didn't much care for the timetrials of that one. This one, the crabs. They are so annoying, as are the floating button buoys. The crab collecting is part of the game (crabs = hint currency), but still annoying. The rotation of the pieces isn't intuitive (the instructions aren't clear you hold both mouse buttons) at first, but the mechanic is a nice twist on the series. I got it for 66% off in the Steam Summer sale and I think US$3.39. If you can find it for less, then even better, but 50% off or better it is a thumbs up (US$5 or less).

if you like jigsaw puzzles you will love this game for sure. i enjoyed all 3 Pixel Puzzles games that they released so far, this one has added the rotation feature ( you have to rotate the piece to figure how and where it should be placed) which made the game harder and it will take more time to solve the puzzles, i really recommend them all to any jigsaw puzzles fan. i would suggest Putting your own music while playing.

**update** **years later** I checked, and sure enough, as was pointed out to me, the messy backgrounds do appear to have been adjusted to be easier on the eyes. Also, pretty much Pixel Puzzles Ultimate has superceded all of the previous standalone games, so there's that. Anyway! What follows is the original review as written back then, I was liking the Pixel Puzzles series until this one, where they decided to make the game difficult to interact with in pointless ways. As you can see from the featured screenshots, the background you have to do your puzzles against is just a mess of random lines. If you have ever wondered why people don't choose to do their jigsaw puzzles on a paisley tablecloth or their clan tartan, then here is your answer. As you can also see from the screenshots, the UI buttons float in the water with the puzzle pieces, making it harder to pick the pieces up. The crabs... the crabs that run out from under the pieces are simply a pain in the ass. Add in the fuzzy, low-res, and rather boring pictures of birds, and it starts to look like the features screenshots on the store page are not so much an enticement to play the game, but a dire prophecy, foretelling the horrors that await within. It's not a bad thing to mix things up a bit, and make some changes to sequel games to keep them fresh, but every change they made to the series with this game has been for the worse, and that is what I find most puzzling of all.

This is the fourth Pixel Puzzles game I've played, and the only one so far that I would not recommend. I love puzzles, both physical and digital, and I finished every puzzle in this game, but there were so many built-in and unnecessary annoyances that I couldn't recommend it to anyone else. First and most importantly, someone had the idea to make the background patterned. I'm sure they meant well, but building a patterned puzzle on a patterned backdrop is extremely difficult, especially with the larger puzzles that have smaller pieces. With some, seeing the edges was nearly impossible, even with changing the color of the patterned backdrop. Without being able to make out the shape of the edges, adding pieces became a sort of "trial-and-error" of dropping every somewhat-matching piece into the spot and hoping one will fit. There is, as far as I could see, no way to get a nice solid background to work with, only color-changes of the pattern; this can help but doesn't solve the problem. To me, this is a game-ruining design flaw. The hint system isn't awful but it adds another layer of annoyance. The crabs you have to gather to "spend" on hints spawn directly under your cursor. If you're trying to work in an area, you have to drop the piece you're working on to move the damned crab out of the way. If by some chance the crab spawns where you have a few pieces piled up, you have to move every piece before you can grab the crab. If you have a LOT of pieces piled up (i.e. if you're sorting them), it can take forever to get everything moved so you can get the crab moved. Not game breaking, but very annoying. The other problem I had with it was purely aesthetic. Birds aren't the most interesting thing to me, but I was expecting bright birds with pretty plumage, tropical birds and peacocks, things that are pretty and make great puzzles. Instead, you get a lot of penguins, ducks, and raptors, and very few were bright and engaging. The end result for me personally was boredom. By the final, largest puzzle, I was sick of brown birds, brown ducks, and hundreds of penguins. So I opened the last puzzle to fiinish this game off, and there were more penguins (I shook my head with a sigh and sallied forth anyway). There was some variety in the pictures, but even the variety was dull. Now, this is a personal preference so others might not agree here, but it was my personal opinion on it. So after 20+ hours playing the game and finishing every puzzle for the sake of my own achievement-seeking OCD, I just can't recommend it to anyone else unless the poor background and annoying hint system aren't likely to bother you.